hicountry

My oldest has aged out and my youngest will age out within a year, they are done with fundraising. Agree the popcorn is marginal in quality and over priced but what took the cake with trails end was the trail mix.

A few years ago they offered the standard trail mix with peanuts, mm's and raisins, $20 for a small can. It was over priced but in the realm of possibly normal. After that they went to a bag (Not even the perception of value the tin provided ) but the quantity (ounces) went down and the price went to $25.

Out Kernal showed me the bag they provided and told me how much, I about fell on the floor I was so amazed at the outrageous price. He laughed and said council told everyone to sell it as premium, no filler, no peanuts....I asked if gold nuggets had repalced the peanuts. We told our boys to NOT sell the trail mix as 1. We only deal in case lots and 2. We were going to send a message to council that this product was far outside the range of reasonable.

I beleive the Denver Council dropped the trail mix after that year.

Selling scouting is all well and good but the value vs the price gets out of hand at some point. Hard to sell a Yugo at a Cadillac price. I find it easier to donate a 20 dollar bill and get nothing in return than pay $25 and get a small bag of trail mix. In one of these case I feel good I have supported somehting worthwhile, in the other scenario the good feeling of supporting something good is overshadowed by the feeling of being totally ripped off.

We are one unit that is finding more efficient ways to manage Merit Badges. I love the idea of boys seeking other adults and working on their own on badges but in 5 years despite promoting this idea for 3 of those years, only two boys came to me to independently work on a badge with a counselor, in one example I was the counselor.

Given the nature of the way boys and families work, I don't have time to change the world but with my limited time, I adapt to it (within reason). We encourage participation at the dreaded merit badge colleges, merit badges at summer camp and we sometimes hold our own merit badge classes. (Our merit abdges are a quality effort, not a rubber stamp deal).

Not only is it nearly impossible to get boys to seek out and work merit badges independently, most boys never finish partials, even with regular coaching and reminders from parents, adult leaders and patrol leaders.

That being said, the council and district MBC list is horribly out of date and we are in a more remote area so troop only MBC works for us. I got sick of re-registering with council every year for the same merit badges when I am a troop only MBC. (Why am I not open to all units ? I have enough time going into scouting now, don't have time for other boys from elsewhere calling me for even more of my time is the reason why).

Last year I re-submitted my MB list back to council early May. They did nothing for weeks and then contacted me late June about the mandatory YPT. I wnet online and could not find my records. After a number of calls they fixed the problem and there was all my current training including YPT.

It then dawned on me, my Adv. Coordinator only sent in the Advancement report, not all the blue cards. I asked myself why I was bothering to get writers cramp filling out 17 seperate blue cards when I ahve a groop do E Prep at my fire station for example. Adv Coordiantor told me she your prefer a spreadsheet with the boys and requiremtned, just put a date in the cell when a requirement was done.

At that point we dropped blue cards and registering MBC's. The boys still get a QUALITY merit abdge where they learn something from an experienced adult, there are no YPT issues, less time filling in byzantine blue crds and no hassles with council. It works much better for everyone even though it is not by the book.

I certainly don't know both sides of the story or in person know the personalities or witnessed the history but from what you have said here.....

The SM appears to be looking for any reason to delay you

The relationship with the SM is not good

I know may adults who hold grudges a long time over small things and react way out of proportion to the issue at the root of it all

You have already made many attempts

You have a small unit with limited otehr adult resources

Other adult resources in your unit are not very actively engaged or attending.

Not knowing how much you plan to be active in the future, or how well you like the unit, or what other units or crews are out in your area that might be appealing......

I think I would QUEITLY get your records of your badges earned above Eagle recorded at either council or shared with another unit of your choice. If your Advancement Coordinator can be trusted to confidentially provide the records to say a venturing unit where you have had a talk with it's leader about the situation and you know he will provide SM conference and BOR for you....dual register with the venture unit.

You can earn the palms (You need to live up to the leadership and Scout Spirit parts) in the venture crew and troop and say nothing in the troop about the palms or venture unit, don't wear them or be awarded them at the troop COR. That way you can attend meetings, campouts and be with your buddies showing scout spirit and leadership in the troop if you still want to. Some adult with a revenge agenda should NOT make your life worse. If you have the Merit badge records transferred to the venture unit, the SM can't really do anything about it at that point and you have removed his ability to negatively effect your life.

Some might say to work the system, I find many times this is a waste of time, energy and good motivation. If I walk to a building I want to enter and walk into it's wall, do I insist on walking forward with my nose pressed against the bricks, or do I use my noggin and look for an unlocked door ?

One other thought (And Calico I was not meaning any disrespect, just pointing out a road we maight not all want to go down)...

So when is it BSA will make a rule against water sponges and water balloons, either that some kid gets hurt when his glasses get busted or some whiney parent complains it simulates hand grenades and miliary and BSA caves to pressure and bans them.

Don't laugh, it could be closer than you think, how many threads have we read regarding CAMO and is it banned or not, the bandwagon for banning citing simulation of miliary garb.

Maybe they can throw water balloons but are banned from making a whistling, then an exploding noise when the balloon is in flight and then "lands".

Either we accept their wisdom on this or move on to another organization. It's time to stop bringing our own baggage in to this and act like Thomas54's Boy Scout - accept it maturely, and move on.

I respect your opinion but last I knew there was freedom of speech and expression, just because someone does not 100% tow the line without feedback or opinion, does not qualify it as baggage. Most of the adults involved in BSA are volunteers, they don't have to be here if they choose not to. To insinuate they do everything exactly as prescribed and they are not allowed to have an opinion on any matter (Be it on a website, in a Roundatble or talking with other scouters personally) would have undesirable effects (Lose a lot of adult volunteers).

Political Correctness is real and is out of control having many undesirable effects. Anyone remember the story about 7 years back of the 8 year old expelled from school for using a chicken tender as a simulated gun with friends playing in school ?

How many threads have been on here and other boards lamenting the decline in the number of boys in scouting or how youth today in so many places consider scouting to be nerdy and uncool. Here is just one small of many, many examples contributing to that problem.

Can you imagine a group conversation at say....a roundtable and when topics come up that adult leaders express thier opinion on the effect some of the ridiculous rules BSA foists on them (In BSA's wisdom) they are told to obey them and not voice any opinion.....any idea where that will lead ?

See the thread regarding too many BSA rules taking the fun out of scouting. G2S2 can be interpreted to outlaw the use of squirt guns and in examples provided by others, some individauls or councils or districts already have.

Our scouts have had water pistols at some campouts, no one became a gun nut and no hypersensative neighboring campers called the local media to spin the tale that BSA is raising a bunch of ultra right gun nuts at age 11 or 12.

I guess someone bent on following every rule to the letter, no matter how ridiculous could have given me and my fellow scouters on those events a hard time about not sticking religiously to G2S2.....but it was a harmless activity, it was safe and the boys had FUN as COMMON SENSE prevailed.

Related story, 5 years back the boys wanted to do the dreaded, perilous forbidden lazer tag. I told them it couldn't be an official troop activity but if they wanted to do it as an independant event, then fine(they even do this stuff in organized church youth groops by the way). I am not about to try to enforce BSA rules on their private life. They had friends both in the troop and outside of it, no BSA discount, no BSA funds and a mix of adult leaders and parents attend, some not even connected to our troop. I had a committee member who was one of the rabid rule types complain and I told them it was an event outside the troop. She went and complined to the DC who called me to tell me to cancel it. I told him some boys were doing this on their own, totally outside of scouting and he still told me to cancel or they might fire me (SM) and the committee chair. I asked him if he wanted me to police every family in the troop to be sure they adhered to all BSA rules in their private lives and he thought I was being ridiculous. I then told him the boys can do whatever they want outside of scouting and I was going to do nothing about it. He threatened again and I asked him if he had another SM and CC lined up to take our place as the pay was the same if we stayed or left and leaving would give us more less work and aggrivation. Also noted was our unit was being resurrected from near dead by me and others and if me and the CC were gone they would loose pretty much all the other adult leaders and about 75% of the scouts.

He was silent for a minute and then wanted to confirm this had no connection to the unit then explaimed that BSA rules have no jurisdiction over activities outside of BSA so go ahead.

I haven't figured out yet why he changed his tune so quickly.......

BSA and almost everything else anymore is a hassle due to WAY TOO MANY RULES AND REGULATIONS.

Not so much BSA's fault, it is typical CYA efforts thanks to whiners complainers, the politically correct crowd, our good freinds, the lawyers, govenment pressure, standards and laws etc. There are many things one can't do with scouts and other activities that have such a ridiculous burden of requirements, paperwork etc that they are effectively not worth the effort to make happen. Anyone can pick the pet rules of thier choice and illustrate justification for it but at a point long ago, Scoiety and BSA went way over the lines of common sense with the level or requirements, paperwork and rules to make many things in life an un-neccesary hassle, taking more time effort and frustration to pull off and very likely helping burn out and discourage volunteers. I have had numerous scouts come to the PLC and adults wanting to do "X" or "Y" and we had to tell them it was off limits or so much hassle, time friustration expense whatever to try to pull off that we had to say no.

I will start this again with a heartfelt praise to guys like Brent who somehow are able to have troops that run to some of the highest standards, in this case uniform, but Bren or others it is a litel condecending to automatically beleive any troop that doesn't meet the bar where you managed to get it is inferior or not doing things right. I COULD HAVE pushed the troop to full uniform, no parents wring checks as the boys all fuundraised sufficiently, total boy led patrol method etc but I can tell you from my experience witht eh scouts and families in my troop and the folks in my community I would have a troop of 6-10 scouts not 20-24 where we are at. We used to have 30-36 but found it best to have a slightly smaller troop with boys who wanted to be there and familys who get it. We have near 100% troop meeting aprticipation and all campouts get an average of 75% participation and the boys are not only having fun but really learning and enjoying the troop, in so doing they are advancing.

When I took over there was no uniforms AT ALL amonst other issues. We got it to waist up and encourage more via various methods. A few boys wear green pants or even socks and a belt but many won't and I gave up fighting that battle as did an ASM who was gung ho about full uniform. He finally came to me and said he wanted to enjoy the troop more and realized he ahd to sometimes pick his battles. The boys started to enjoy him more too as a result.

I ahve had boys attend youth leadership training at Council and had an extremely negative impression on full uniform as they had a uniform zealot give a session about full uniforming. It was a turn off and had the opposite effect the trainer had intended.

I say this out of respect and I hope people really read this and take time to understand and not react in anger.....the folks who are un bending uniform zealots demotivate people from teh concept of full uniforming. I read some posts here from some mebers of the referred to Uniform police and think I wouldn't want to be like that at all. Again I say to those who manage to have full boy led method, patrol method and full uniforming, a heartfrelt congratulations, it jsut doesnt work for all units, all communities, all scouts and all scouters.

We were at a camporee several years ago, my smaller rural based troop noted teh troop next door with full out race trailer with custome vynal graphic, fancy tents and equipemhnt had the mom's cooking dinner and the dads setting up the campsite, even my new tenderfoots had issue with it. My troop took best campsite with a perfect score, won the bike race, took first second and third in teh shotgun shoot and took first place on the dutch oven dinner and the dutch oven dessert. A result....adult leader from teh well to do Mommy Daddy troop next door starts to pick about the old goat patrol patches my adults had on their sleeves. I told him it was my reward and a sign of comaraderie to hard working volunteer scouters who helped make my troop a success and that maybe he should run a more scout like troop as a priority instead of prioritizing on unimpoetant uniform details. He picked about the patch as hsi release for being angy that our little troop with much less fancy stuff and the boys doing the work could beat hsi troop.

We all know scouting has a nerdy, deewby reputation amongst boys, the uniform si a part of that problem. I have been successful in having boys stay in until 18 and some have stayed on as ASM's, some of their friends have joined because of what they heard we do. I have had several varsity sport "jocks" who are considered cool at School stay in and stay active and take a leadership roll that has been an example to others. I have had some of these boys come direct from swimming or wrestling or football or baseball and put on the class A shirt, maybe a necker and still have on Athletic pants, even occasionally at a court of honor. I get more mileage as a troop when the other scouts see that the "jocks" make an effort to be at the meetingand stay in scouts until 18 even though these boys who might have otherwise dropped out as the "Cool Crowd" tjhey hang with consider scouts nerdy, decide to stay in the troop showing everyoen the troop is Worth it. That dynamic has gotten me a lot more positve miles than full comploant unirom would so that's where my priorities have been. We have even picked up 3 scouts over the past 5 years from an area troop due to, I am told, strict fulkl uniforming expectations there. Those boys have stayed and love our program and are growing and advancing because they want to be here. I have lost no one to any other troops other than a move out of our area and definitley no one left becasue we are not strict enough on uniforming.

Not limiting this to just uniforms, there are enough of those threads elsewhere. Brent, I envy you, if you knew me, I really wanted to get where you are at, I just retired as SM after 5 years (now on committee to be there for new SM but not to be in his way). I was beyond burnend out by my seconf year and had it at the begining of year 3 where I planned to drop. My wife pointed out to me that all the work that was done to turn around the troop was mostly in place and it was time to just enjoy the troop becasuse the boys were and the parents loved how our troop was going. Something was still gnawing at me, I did recharter for year 4 (and year 5 after that) and it was other adult leaders who helped me by pointing it out...it was my expectations. I still wanted the boys to fundraise and make it on their own steam I wanted to improve uniforming (not full uniforming but a step up) I wanted to see the boys do more as patrols and on their own. Things got to a point where no further progress was being made on these initiatives I wanted to see more leadership and more boy led than I had managed things to get to. Others tried to, many different tools and approaches but we hit a point where things stuck. I finally learned to not be so absoilute about evey aim and method but to start enjoying how well the troop had improved since I took over, I was burning myself out trying to acheive things that were not going to be. I relaxed and enjoyed myself the last 2 years as SM. The new SM wants to further improvements in the same areas I wanted, maybe with a new SM and more fresh blood in the scout ranks he can accomplish it, I am there to assist. If I stuck to absolutes of maintaing high standards on all aims and methods instead of prioritizing and comprimising where it made sence I would have dropped out from frustration long ago.

Sorry for the double post but I missed this one.....

National would be well advised to look at the volunteer fire service as a model of how to maintain professional standards in a volunteer service. While rules vary from state to state, there are national standards in place created by the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association).

Most firefighters have some level of NFPA certification. In some states a certain level of continuing education (CE) is required to maintain that certification. The individual has some choice in what kind of CE they want to earn depending upon their needs and interests. There may be some baseline of subject matter that is mandatory but a 15 year veteran would not go back to basic fire training to recertify.

It would be fairly simple to create a short, online, and mandatory refresher course that would cover any recent rule, policy, or procedure changes. Then let veteran leaders select training of interest. First aid, CPR, kayaking, scuba certification, etc. Basically anything that helps ensure that they are the "qualified supervision" needed for an outing.

EMT and other med training is different but Colorado Firefigher 1 which I have been certified for years in is a renewal of nearly an opt out situation. Our Assistant chief of training knows who is active and being smart and effective in the hot zone since last re-certification date. (Pretty much everyone who doesn't maintain actual experience normall quits in the 5 years between recert anyway).

When the FF1 Bubble sheet comes around at recert date, he knows if you've shown competence and experience in laddering, entry, fire suppression, ventilation etc etc and you are signed off. They don't waste people's time testing on the difference between teh jaws and the sheers when you do a half dozen MVA extrications a year or how to put on bunker gar and SCBA when you don that stuff a couple times a month.

Wild land is another situation and has become a check the box CYA deal where every year we have to see the same films and go over the 18 watchouts and LCES and 10 standard fire order class stuff every year. It is one of the reasons I and others have let their red cards lapse. With Colorado Front range as dry as it is though I am considering reupping that for the chance to get some good action this year.....

I was fortunate to develop a solid adult leader team over the 5 years I was SM. All those people are still on board as ASM's and have considerable experience on campouts, hikes, backpacking and the way a BSA troop and patrols should run. Denver area council is not on the manditory training list that I have heard of but the topic has been discussed by adults on a when, what if basis. All our adult leaders have had YPT, Leader essentials, safe swim, weather etc etc but the IOLS would be a waste on active and experienced scouters doing it right. Even the test out is un necessary for them. We decided that if we had manditory IOLS forced on us, the one adult who has IOLS (Treasurer) would register on paper as the SM but the real SM would lead ther ttoop and the treasrer would actually do his treasurer job. All the ASM's would register as committee members but continue to function as ASM's as they always have. Our treaurer who took IOLS years ago told us it was the biggest waste of time ever. The went out to a field where they sat in lawn chairs and one or two scouters read from pages of manuals for hours on end. They went over nothing new for him and when it was done, anyone who was there and breathing got the cert. If they want to force that on a troop like ours that gets it, does it right and has plenty of experience then we know there is more than one way to skin a cat.

For my first few years I tried to sell OA in my troop, no one has been an OA memeber from our troop since about 2004 and before that, no one has any memory of anyone else being involved. The scouts asked what OA is about, the initial answer is the promotional line of it being Scoutings Honor camper society. The kids are smart enough to see that as a generic marketing label and asked what exactly does that mean ? Our response was that they did special lodge campouts, service projects and the ceremony team. Our scouts responded that we camped at least once a month on events they love and attendance is good. We do a good amount of community projects, support and several eagle projects a year so nothing new there. All the boys wouldn't be cauught dead dressed up in Indian Garb and doing the ceremonies they thought was cool as Bear cubs so that was a negative sell rather than positive. So what else do they offer Mr Scoutmaster.....oh they have patches, pocket flaps and those arrow sashes. They already have enough opportunites to get patches and have more pride in their merit badge sashes so that was a no sell. When I brought up that it met back in the city before Roundtable on a weeknight (we are the farthest West district in Council, about an hour from the city where parents just drove up from after their workday) that was a negative. Anotehr independent schedule of meetings, conclaves, projects etc that families had to try and fit into the schedule was another issue.

We stopped even mentioning OA 2 or 3 years ago. The boys saw no value of it over our program, familes saw it as another calendar demand source and another meeting that was inconvenient to attend. District made an extra push this year on OA with the same old "It's scoutings Honor Society" which still has zero impact to the boys. I'm not slamming OA at all, I just want to point out that the claim of being the Honor society doesn't sell to many and when questioned for the details it offers nothing over what our troop already does but it does offer additional complexity to people's lives. I stopped trying to sell OA as I saw no value in trying to sell it.

We have wondered why bother at Centennial unit award or quality unit award or all it's variations for years now. The title Journey to excellence is a complete turn off. When I took over our unit 5 years ago we did the paperwork for Quality unit or whatever it was called that year and we earned Bronze. After that we went through the motions and easily made gold or silver for a couple years. We finally thought about the question we were asking ourselves....why are we playing this game ? We skipped it the 4th year. Year 5 our UC who is a really nice guy went to the units one by one in a very nice way to try to get participation up, many units, like ours quit doing this as they saw no value. Yes getting free rank badges is a nice plus but it wasn't enough of a bribe to keep playing the game. When asked we put some softball figures on the sheet that we easily exceed at years end and thats how we played the game that year. We concentrate on runnning a good unit not BSA time wasters national tries to foist upon us.

This all may be a good way to try and get suffering troops and packs to step it up or reward those that are doing well. What turns us and other troops off that I have talked to is that it smells of modern corporate games and management flavor of the month (Six Sigma, Mission Statements, Total Quality Management etc). I and many others in corprate jobs are sick to death of this kind of stuff at work where we have to put up with it and appear to cheerfully "play the game". When I am on my free leisure time and volunteering to help run a unit (And we do a good job running a good unit) I don't want to play the games I am forced to play at work. One of the hallmarks of corporate games is changing up the game plan or program regularly even if in essence you are changing the dynamics of the game very little. It appears those in charge "have a plan" when they make changes. I smell that when every year the name of the BSA program changes, Quality Unit, Centennial Unit JTE etc. Some of the things I have read at Council and national websites describing JTE and other recent things out of Irving smack exactly like corporate speak. I'm often wondering when, not if, BSA rolls out Six Sigma to the councils and districts.

I know some will say it's only quick paperwork, why not do it and get the free badges. The reason we don't care to is we have this kind of Dilbert like nonsense forced on us at our jobs, we don't want any part of it in our non work time as well, we don't care to support or acknowledge it, we don't HAVE TO play this game so we don't.

Thanks for the compliment but I used to post here under a slightly differnt handle......I've been here before.

I posted as this entire scenario really digs at me, the continual degradation in America where people become increasingly selfish, totally disregard others, want everything done for them and complain constantly. If things aren't delevered to them their way on time and exactly how they want it they complain and proceed to make other people's lives miserable.

I have seen these attitudes killing the pack I mentioned, I had several of these folks in the troop until they were "weeded out", the Booster club at our local school is nearly defunct after numerous rounds of this. I see it in local elections and local county issues. I get discouraged with people being absolutley uncivil and make demands about issues they have 10% of the information on and their opinion is 100% wrong and even detrimenetal to the position they base themselves from. People like this need to be left to fend for themselves and have their complaints ignored. No wonder people burn out and quit and learn the lesson to stop volunteering and avoid groups.

These kind of people know no limit and the degree of their me first always attitudes has no end. Case in point I was on an attic fire about 5 years ago, me and a second FF were on the roof which was "comprised" (It was like a trampoline and was burning through) yet me and the nozzleman were up there trying to knock this down. We pulled before the roof gave, went inside and with air bottle alarms going off proceeded to move this guy's oak antique furniture to a smaller room and tarp it before pulling the cieling, we ere on the last hutch full of china when the cieling drywall let go, broke the other FF's helmet. He was OK we moved the hutch and tarped everything while running out of air. We went outside while otehr crews yanked the cieling and knocked the fire from below. While we are changing out air bottles I overhear the homeowner angry while talking to the chief that we worked too quick and good, should have let the place burn down, he wanted the insurance money!?! The furniture full of china and antiques were inherited from his deceased parents and grandparents but this guy wanted us to let the place burn and collect the cash. I wanted to shove the Halligan I had in a place the sun doesn't shine.

I can't beleive people's selfishness these days.

The price point is now way too high on the popcorn products (for the most part) and the percieved value is very poor even when one considers it supporting a good cause. Our troop still does a fair job selling but they are getting more and more that don't buy and an increase in comments about price. We are seeing an increase in folks who don't buy but kick the boys $5 or $10 as a doantion to the troop. If you stop and look at a tin and think about a $20 bill the price is crazy, $5 is kind of OK, maybe $10 is a stretch but at $20 bucks a can the asking price is crazy. I hear the pitch about it being to support the BSA and units but at what price do things truely become out of hand....$50 a can, $100 ? I think for many $20 for the can is already way out of wack. At least the stuff used to come in a nice tin which gave the perception of something more, of quality, the bag they sell this year is a complete joke.

Case in point about percieved value. In the town I used to live in there was a fundraising company that offered it's services to a number of charitable organizations, you could always tell as they offered the same 3 product choices for your $25 donation, a 4 pack of light bulbs, a 10 pack of trash bags or a pizza. I bought once, the pizza that came was about the size of a pizza hut personal pizza and the quality was the dregs. In the future when I got calls from charitys and these choces came up I told them I wasn't buying but I'd donate $25 to them, the percieved value of the product was so poor I wanted nothing to do with it, BUT I was ok Doanting the same amount. I think popcorn has reached this point for many. In other wors, I was OK giving the charity $25 but if I had any mental connection to the cheap roduct connected to teh $25 I felt totally ripped off.

I am surprised no one has discussed the scout trail mix. A few years ago it came in a tin, was $20 and was a mix of common trail mix with raisens, peanuts, M&M's and other stuff. About 2 years ago they switched to a smaller bag, it was quality stuff (No more m&m's, less peanuts.) I told my Popcorn Chair I might buy a couple bags that were left over from the case buy the troop did. When he told me $25 for that little bag I darn near fell over ! It was clear to me someone in BSA popcorn fundraising had become completely clueless how far out of line the price of that trail mix was from reality. Next year we told no one to sell the trail mix as we got a 10 case teh previous year and had to either sell the remaining 5 unsold bags at cost or just use them at camp for snacks. I heard they did away with the trail mix this past fall. My Popcorn chair is a good guy, he told me Council told everyone to sell this stuff as it had no filler !....I asked him if they had gold nuggets in place of the m&m's. I have seen the exact same trail mi at wallmart and Target, cranberries, pecans and such, $6.00 for a bag about 2 and a half times the size of the $25 bag BSA tried to push.

One overall effect of this popcorn situation is gradually this damages a piece of BSA's perception in the community and parents. The degrading quality, size and even packaging and the continued price increases on an alreay way overpriced products adds to teh perception of being greedy, out of touch and having some misplaced priorities.

Basementdweller, as long as you continue this you not only make yourself miserable but you are enabling the rude, selfish, self centered behavior of the parents and other leaders you have described in this and other threads. The benefit of what you do for the boys is far outweighed by the abuse, lack of help, demands and total BS you described. If you leave it is highly doubtfull the remaining leaders or parents will pick up the ball, things will likely collapse but that is on them, not you.

I read what you say about cross overs, be careful what you wish for. In an effort to increase scouts in the troop would you also be bringing on some of the problem parents ?

When I first took over my unit I tried to get the scout numbers up (from about 2 dozen to about 3 dozen). I learned that 20-24 involved boys with decent parents was a better formula than 3 dozen which included some troublemaker scouts and paents, leaders who didn't do the job and the deadwood scouts.

Once I got the numbers down with the gradual elimination of the problem folks and deadwood I could also keep only the leaders who dependably did their jobs. Our troop ran much better by all measures, boys were enthusiastic, learned more, did more and things became more boy led. Be careful of the desire to feed the troops numbers at the expense of inheriting the problem people all over again.

We are fed by 2 area packs, one of these packs is lacking in communication and leadership but also had a real miscreant parent who was a leader in the pack. This individual has been stirring up trouble in the community and pack, there were 12 Webelos 2 to cross over, 11 of them were gone before christmas, quit because of this problem parent. Only one remaining was him and his kid who we advised to try another troop last month when they wanted to join us. I learned the hard way, now that the unit is working well we don't need to relearn the same lesson a second time.

Put your energies in the troop. I'm sure the idiots and fools you have described will blame you but their anger lies in the fact they deep down know they are to blame. When things collapse and you are not there to fix it all the while running the show and serving as a dartboard for their compliants they will resent it. They made theri bed, now is time they sleep in it. You have earned and deserve better, time to move on before your entire view of scouting is poisoned by the experiences of this caustic bunch.