MattR

I talked to a guy in town that took wb from Hillcourt. Each patrol made and led games that taught outdoor skills. That was the program - fun with a purpose. That would have been a great course.

I agree. It's about smiles. The things that bother me are those that get in the way of those smiles. To be honest, requirement creep and lack of patrol support at summer camp bothers me a lot more than any of the membership changes.

I don't understand. The boys enjoy scouts. The parents enjoy scouts. The boys want to get eagle. The parents want the boys to get eagle. There was a discussion about whether non LDS troops would respect your beliefs. Why not just run your own troop? Like you already are doing? The loss of LDS scouts is fine by me, assuming the ones that enjoy it stay and the ones that don't enjoy it leave. Scouts making decisions and adults supporting them.

We replaced 'dodge ball' with 'red white and blue ball'

I have one very important question. @Cambridgeskip, did you win the bet or did I? I think you got one wrong and one right.

I'll take that bet. Let's face it, your proposal is reasonable.

It would be. However, if, in the process of tying that knot incorrectly he could slice his hand open, or that of a scout nearby, then maybe not so silly. Cutting a corner off does involve a bit of pain but a little pain is a well known way of learning and a lot better than stitches. All of the complaints on this forum about helicopter parents is really about not letting the scout learn from his own pain or not to have pain. The real question is how much pain is the right amount. It's different for different people and a good lesson for the scouts is to understand that difference. Nobody can learn that if no pain is allowed. It's bad when it becomes a power or dominance thing. That's when it becomes humiliating. Cutting a corner off a card is not that. It's no different than failing a test. If that's considered humiliating then we've identified a different problem.

"What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul."

"We don't see things the way they are, we see things the way we are."

When I became SM I told my son he didn't have to stick around because I was SM or that he should get Eagle because of me. He enjoyed scouts until 6 months before he graduated and then sort of faded away. He was looking forward. I was fine with that and I kept at it. You feel bad about stepping down and that's understandable. Don't deny it. But don't beat yourself up over it. This job requires passion. That said, you can find an outlet for that passion and I encourage you to look for it. It will take time. It has taken me a year. It sort of sucked at first. Now I think it is working out better for the troop and therefore me as well. Rather than have just one adult with a lot of passion for the troop there are now two. I did take about 3 months off, mainly because there were a bunch of things going on and I was okay with skipping some things. I was unhappy with one thing the new SM was doing but I did bite my tongue. When I started as SM everyone was telling me what to do and it just didn't help. So I wasn't going to do this to the new SM. Especially since my opinions carry a lot more weight than those of others. But we were both after the same goal so I decided to let it play out. In the process of doing that I found a couple of things to work on that were orthogonal to what the new SM was working on and at the same time complementary (so what really bothers me about his new approach will solve itself). I now have a purpose. We're working together. And I don't have to worry about all the little details anymore. I'm happier. Whereas before the buck did stop with me, so it was all my problem if nobody else was going to step up, I can now say nope, I'm not going to worry about that. I can now focus on the things I wanted to do before but didn't have time for. Of course, the district has sucked me in but that's another story. Anyway, if you have a passion for this then honoring it is not such a bad thing. You still have to balance it with your family but how often do people get to find something they really enjoy? Good luck!

Our SPLs pick their ASPLs. Our current SPL is not real happy with his choice. He may be encouraging the ASPL to step aside. I was surprised when he made that choice. Since the SPL has to make it all work, I think he should get his own choice. If the ASPL is good then when it comes time to voting he's going to get it. If he's not good then he won't get it. It works. I've also seen scouts that, after having been ASPL, decided SPL was not for them. BTW, we do have the patrols pick the SPL. Those wanting it give a speech. The patrols talk. The PLs vote. We're back to voting on a schedule but I did like it when the patrol leaders made their own schedule. Getting them out of sync helped the transition. I think a good idea would be 6 months, plus or minus 2. There are different reasons why scouts would like to change the schedule. Basically you have to have an election every so often but if you want to do it earlier then go for it. They can make that decision.

The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision -Maimonides

I can't answer that for you but here's how I'd answer it. How's your program? You are apparently happy with it, but why? What's your definition of a good program? For me it's the scouts are having fun and the scouts are taking on more responsibility as they grow older. How do you measure fun and responsibility? One way to measure fun is how active are the scouts? How many scouts go on weekend events? What are the week long programs and how's the participation. As for scout growth, what are the growth paths? How are the patrols functioning? What percentage of scouts are older, say 15 and above? What do they do? How do they relate to the younger scouts? You can tell us answers to these questions if you want but it's really just for you to think about. But if you're happy with your program then it works. You might want to dig a bit deeper with the people that say you need more ASMs and find out the why behind that.

To say that national is doing fine and it's all just a local issue is kind of like saying the board of directors are all doing a good job but the employees are all just bad. To answer your question, it's simple, focus on making the program easier to understand. This will help recruit and keep volunteers. Where does it concisely state what the program is so a new volunteer can get up to speed and productive quickly? This is why there are few volunteers. It's hard enough to volunteer but if you have no idea what the program is and how it works then forget it. Volunteers need to see results or they will drop off and quit. Then there's the parents that get the program wrong. It was a constant struggle with new parents because they thought the program was getting eagle. So, that's where I'd start. The program is simple. It's fun with a purpose. And the purpose is developing responsibility. So, scouts having fun while taking on more responsibility. That's the program. JTE does not reflect that. The training does not reflect that. The Aims of Scouting do not reflect that. Or maybe I'm just wrong and I should find something else to do. Please tell me if that's the case because it would make things easier for me. Seriously. I get really tired of telling people "But what scout will think that's fun?" @ParkMan, I'm not trying to pick on you. I'm just getting frustrated. There are fewer and fewer people helping out. The fallback is always advancement. I visit other troops and I can't see patrols in any of them.

@KevinPMajka, while I agree that there are different ways to donate, the words "being a turd" is not one of them.