MattR

@Eagle94-A1, no need to beat yourself up. It's hard to walk away. And it's okay.

The first day I joined a scout troop I met this old guy, at least he seemed old to me, an eleven year old, and he was the kindest person I'd ever met. It was a group of new scouts and he was working with us. I was struggling with the scout law and all the other kids had no problem with it. He was very patient with me. I always wanted to be like him. My guess he was previously the SM. It's probably why I wanted to be a SM. He was why it was so hard for me to leave my troop. I wanted to be that kind guy. But, I never got to have that chance working with the new scouts because I was too busy trying to make up for the fact that not many parents were helping out and I was doing way more heavy lifting in the troop than I wanted. One thing I always told myself was not to wait until I was angry with the troop before I left. I had a lot of good memories and I didn't want them ruined. So one day something went way south and I decided right then and there I was done. I walked out and haven't been back. Scouting will have to survive without me. Whether it does is out of my control so I won't worry about it. Besides, I enjoy a lot of other things now. Tomorrow morning I'm going to drive to where I saw a really old, kind of rusty, GMC pickup truck that's sitting in a field with a lot of grass growing around it and take some photos.

Take care.

That kind of ended with a whimper. I wish those that are involved all the best of luck.

@skeptic, with all due respect, Truth and Knowledge are not personal opinions. "Referring youth back to family" makes a lot of sense when it comes to religion, but not this fiasco. If the scout's parents are getting their news from X/TikTok/QAnon or any of a number of other worthless information sources then all you're doing is keeping the scouts confused. What makes for an informed opinion? A bit of skepticism is certainly good. So is humility. I'd say play the devil's advocate on any issue they're interested in and show them how to come to their own answers.

The bigger problem I see is that fear is freezing people from doing the right thing. They're afraid they're the only one that isn't so sure, so to be safe they're just going to go along. That's the problem. Democracy doesn't work when a lot of people are afraid to speak their mind. Your job is to teach them about truth and knowledge as well as bravery, humility, and kindness. Unfortunately this isn't just scouts. The best example is that Congress is frozen. Half of them think they can't do anything because they don't have the votes and the other half think they can't do anything because they're afraid they'll be voted out. I suspect the truth is that there are a fair number of people that voted for this administration but didn't vote for what's going on. Those people are the ones that hold all the power, if only they'd find the confidence to talk about their concerns. If only Congress would talk to them then, who knows, Congress might become a third co-equal branch of the government. Novel idea, no?

For all the others, a bunch are getting what they voted for and I have no sympathy for what's happening to them. For those that didn't vote for this administration it's time to play the cards that were dealt.

You say you don't remember a time when things were this "muddled and frozen by blind opinion?" Sure you do. You grew up in one such period. Civil rights. Vietnam. A lot of people were really sure about things until they started asking questions. Even then, the complexity of what was going on was much more than people realized. How many decades did it take to quit blaming vets? Anyone that thinks history is simple is not paying attention.

I think we shouldn't whitewash our history.  Just like scouts growing from making mistakes and learning from them so does society.

I certainly hope that within a week of when I die people aren't posting on this website about how lousy a scoutmaster I was.

@swilliams, I'm going to make this quick.

Scouting works when younger scouts look up to older scouts. Scouting also happens in the patrol. So don't do patrols by grade. Also, scouts want to be with their friends. These 3 items create a difficult puzzle to solve.

Some older scouts are natural at working with younger scouts and many are afraid of doing it. Most friendships are around age. You don't understand the scout dynamics as well as the scouts do.

That's where the art of being the SM comes in. Another way of saying that is you flail around trying to coach your older scouts to do what they should be doing.

I gave up on selecting patrols, let the scouts figure it out but make sure patrols are balanced.

Good luck.

I figured out a very long time ago that the registrar must be kept happy if you ever wanted anything fixed for your unit. If they're removed then I can't imagine the frustration that will create. I mean, I just hoped the counsel exec stayed out of my way but I went out of my way to keep the registrar happy. They knew how to fix things.

For those of you still dealing with these issues, I wish you luck.

I have a rain jacket that works well with a wide brimmed hat. I have rain pants that I rarely use. If I lived in more rainy climates I'd replace the pants with a rain kilt/skirt and possibly gators. All of which can grow with a teenager.

21 minutes ago, PACAN said:

This topic has strayed from the original post which was to identify and discuss Catholic diocese and units eliminating their scout programs.

Give me a new name and a rough range of dates and I'll split the thread.

On 11/7/2024 at 11:41 AM, BadChannel70 said:

US court reluctant to blow up Boy Scouts’ $2.46 billion sex abuse settlement | Reuters

One quote from that struck me. This from a lawyer representing 75 survivors:

Quote

"Nobody can bargain away my clients' claims without their consent, not even other survivors," Lujan Wolff said.

In other words, if this plan is rejected then it's everyone for themself. Get in line and hopefully you're at the front. That's a couple of winners and a whole lot of losers.

On 11/3/2024 at 1:56 PM, HashTagScouts said:

Membership started steady decline after 1999.

I think it really started well before that. There's a peak around 1973, just about when I joined, and then there's another, smaller peak, around 1990. The first peak probably corresponds to the baby boom kids being old enough to be in scouts. That second peak is likely from the children of those in the first peak.

Did you notice that the author of the article was 14 to 18 years old? Maybe a scout.

I don't see nearly as many girls selling cookies as I used to. Sounds like GS is suffering like the BSA.

Not sure their cookie overhead is any different than that for popcorn. Honestly, the drop in membership for both organizations is a sad statement about our drop in community more than any problems with leadership.

10 hours ago, DuctTape said:

Dogs and cats living together.

Makes sense, protection in numbers.

6 hours ago, Eagledad said:

 

I could see a hybrid program for the second-year Webelos in which the troops could assist with it. Even just meeting at the same location as the troop during a troop meeting makes a difference. A weak leader could easily ask for assistance during a difficult meeting, and the Webelos could watch the older scout program in action. I've experimented with the Hybrid approach, and it works if the troop is on board.

I'd push that just a bit further. Make webelos start a year earlier and last a year longer, so 4 years instead of 2. A lot more new scouts are afraid of the outdoors because fewer parents camp, so they're even less mature than before. So make the program about getting them ready to camp with a troop. And as you said, make it part of a troop. If a webelo is mature enough to move to a patrol when they're 11 then go for it, but most aren't. Anyway, as part of a troop they'd still have their own program but they'd see the scouts, get to know them and the transition would be easier.

If this were done than cubs could be skipped all together. Yeah, I know, that will go over like a titanium balloon (lead's not so healthy ). So, end of my 1 1/2 cents of wisdom.

22 hours ago, PACAN said:

So the  % girls is up and total membership down which tells me the % of boys has dropped a bunch.

Well, the girls membership has dropped by roughly 20% in 18 months. My guess is the boys are similar, given that the girls percentage is nearly the same over that period.

The point is a 20% drop in 18 months is ... more than a bunch.

2 hours ago, satl8 said:

Will just drop this here...

 

OA New Vision, Mission, and Purpose.


 

I read this and what caught my attention was that the OA has, essentially, taken on the role of keeper of the flame for SA (Twitter, no!, X, no!, BSA, got it!). Joking aside, I wish them luck. If national is okay with this then ... maybe that's a way to participate? The OA asked for feedback. That's a change.

The comment that troops are now much smaller is the first honest description of some of the problems troops are facing. More support for at least troops via something other than district beaurocracy sounds good to me, even though it sounds hard. Maybe the OA can come up with better training?

I really wish them luck.

$600k per shower house? I'm sure they need new ones but what is this, $500/sq ft? Seems really pricey to me. And they need 8? Something doesn't sound right.

Just an idea but how about build one while teaching some scouts some trade crafts? Forget merit badges at camp, teach them some useful skills. High schools have votech classes, use those.

Welcome to the forum,  @KayLH23.

On 8/16/2024 at 2:37 PM, Eagledad said:

Well, I kind of agree.

Our difference of opinion is off in the weeds compared to the differences I have with the description above. Whoever talked about coding and bullying as a way to convince anyone to join scouts really doesn't understand the program. If they're talking to kids it should be something along the lines of fun with friends and learning how to enjoy a good challenge. If they're talking to parents it should be something along the lines of "teaching your children to be trustworthy when it hurts, friendly and cheerful when you're having a bad day, courteous to people you're not sure about and brave when you're afraid. Scouting is learning how to enjoy life when it gets tough. Scouting is in the outdoors because that's a great place to learn all these skills. It's not a classroom."

It's not great but it's closer than coding and bullying.

7 hours ago, RememberSchiff said:

Make no mistake, many Scouts love their boots and tackle, but they also take advantage of Scouting's modern-day skills that range from essentials in self-sufficiency and kindness learned early on in Cub Scouts to advanced skills like rocketry, robotics, coding and combating cyberbullying.

At Scouting America, we pride ourselves in delivering the skills we know youth seek in fun and exciting ways," says Angie Minett, Scouts BSA Chairperson. "For example, engineering and creativity are taught as early as Cub Scouts with the iconic Pinewood Derby, offering Scouts hands-on problem-solving experience that remains relevant in today's environment. While kids may think they're just building and racing cars, we know they're accomplishing so much more.

That's odd. Whenever I asked older scouts what they enjoyed the most it involved friends and high adventure trips. There were other things they said they got out of it but they lead with friends and HA. Some mentioned outdoor skills like shooting, kayaking, climbing. Eventually they got around to working with younger scouts and teamwork. Nobody ever, once, mentioned coding, rocketry or cyberbullying.

And yet, scouting could solve these problems they mention.

20 hours ago, HashTagScouts said:

There were many.

Scouting in World War II Detention Camps (scoutingmagazine.org)

Right, but Simpson isn't of Japanese descent. Presumably he didn't live in the camp. So once a week he walked past the barbwire and guard towers to join a troop meeting? There's a good story there.