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MattR

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Everything posted by MattR

  1. 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 be
  2. 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 sch
  3. The risk of a wrong decision is preferable to the terror of indecision -Maimonides
  4. 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?
  5. 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
  6. @KevinPMajka, while I agree that there are different ways to donate, the words "being a turd" is not one of them.
  7. They camp a lot! I'd go with them. Man, talk about taking outdoors to the extreme. Oh wait, maybe you mean 7 or 8 times a year? Never mind. But welcome to the forum. Just to reiterate: A: Too small. There's a minimum number of scouts to keep a critical mass going and that's too few B: Don't know. The fact they don't meet could be really good or really bad. It might be that they have a lot of scouts and the patrols are meeting weekly. This could be a diamond in the rough. I'd check into them more. C: Camping 7 or 8 times a year is not bad. 10-14 scouts is at the low en
  8. I'm not sure if it was this thread or another, but we talked about how to describe the program succinctly so everyone can understand it. Hillcourt called this ""Fun with a purpose." I'd say for a cub the purpose is to develop friendships to get ready for boy scouts. For boy scouts the purpose is responsibility, to God and country, to others, and to self. But it has to be via having fun. That seems to be the part that gets dropped. The documentation that come out of national seems to lead the way in dropping fun. More requirements that aren't any more fun. Rather than dilute the fun the
  9. I don't think it's that simple. It's amazing what ranges of parents I've seen. On one end are the snow plows and on the other are the "suck it up" parents. That phrase came from a parent meeting for children going on a year long, overseas exchange program my daughter went on. While a bit crass, the phrase suck it up really means their children will have to figure it out on their own. There are a number of parents that like this approach and it's independent of scouts or outdoor experience (or exchange programs for that matter). Those parents don't really need much scouting experience to unders
  10. I agree, @Packman, the meetings are repetitive. I think that's caused by DLs learning as they go. Yet the program is the bread and butter of the organization. Think of it this way - 6 or 7 years in cubs with 30 den meetings a year means roughly 200 meetings. I'd think national could come up with 200 really fun ideas. Or a wiki. Or something to help these poor den leaders. Boy Scouts is a bit more challenging but your idea of increasing challenge in the basic program is good. MBs are low hanging fruit. Wikis of good ideas that national would facilitate would be great. Again, the volunteers
  11. Hi Buggie. Welcome to the forum. What you're describing is really the patrol method done right. The patrol leader should be talking to his patrol about what they need and then should make that happen. Should. Reality is often a bit different if the scouts don't know how to talk about what's bugging them, what they need, when's the last time they advanced, etc. So, they likely need some help learning how to do this if they've never done it before.
  12. @Cambridgeskip and @ianwilkins, It sounds like you're seeing the same things we see. Scouts are busy for a bunch of reasons and drop off. Ian, your description of explorers is nearly identical to our venturing, scouts form patrols as needed, anyone can lead. The numbers are dropping. Adults have no idea why. It looks like it should be fun but the kids just don't respond. I've noticed that for older scouts motivation has to be internal or they'll just go along because there's nothing else to do (and if there is something else to do then they'll do that). A bigger adventure is self motivati
  13. An important question not being asked about the UK scout/explorer division is how many older scouts are there compared to younger scouts. If the program was fantastic you'd expect roughly a 1/1 ratio. You can find those numbers ( http://scouts.org.uk/media/879334/Annual-Report-2016-17_WEB.pdf) and the beaver, cub, and scout divisions all have about the same numbers. The explorer numbers are just above 1/3 the number of scouts so there's a big drop from scouts to explorers. My guess is that's similar to the BSA numbers. I'm not picking on UK Scouts (they do some things much better than we do) I
  14. Go to any research conference and sit in on a presentation session. Everyone has a laptop. If the presenter is good then everyone is taking notes. If the presenter is bad then everyone is working. Yes, it really sucks. With respect to your sons, walking out because they don't like it can lead to some short attention spans. Good books can sometimes be a slog for the first half. I'd say they should give it an honest try for the first half. If it's still bad then go ahead and leave. They should also consider doing their homework ahead of time, as in, what's the background of the counselor? I
  15. Any organization requires critical mass, which it sounds like nobody really has. So from that standpoint I'd say combine. Every organization also needs a leader with an idea of where to go. Do you have that? More importantly, do the 3 crews agree with that leader's view of how a crew should run? If not, combining might be a bad idea. When I say leader there are really two that are important, the youth president and the adult advisor. I'm assuming you can find an adult, but are there any youth that are doing a good job of leadership? Until there's a view of where this thing is going m
  16. I agree. I just don't call it modeling, I call it magic. It doesn't happen all the time but when it does it is the best that scouts has to offer. Learning duty to others before duty to self can't be any more clear than older scouts helping younger scouts and having fun while doing it. Sure, the older scouts also want their own fun but if that's all they do then it's no different than adults that don't volunteer, that don't learn how to have fun while volunteering, that are only interested in their own fun. I really respect what UK Scouts has done, their numbers are going up. But I think k
  17. Have the older scouts help you come up with fun games that require the skills you want the scouts to know. So, no more teaching skills. The only requirement for each game is that it be fun and that it teach some bit of skill. Fun has a higher priority. They may need some help but coming up with fun games is a start. If this works and the older scouts start having more fun then see who'd like to work on coming up with some fun for the older scouts.
  18. Told ya so. I think this is a really good point to delve into. @Eagledad talked about his son stepping up on the canoe trip. I hear stories like this over and over again. Even I had a similar experience. My son told me, after he was in college and went camping with some friends, "how clueless they were." He's a bit shy as well but when he went to Nicaragua to help build a bridge he was the guy that stepped up. He was also the only one that spoke Spanish and could drive a manual transmission. The point is that scouting teaches kids to be responsible and make things happen. The scouts r
  19. So, your daughter dances every year, how can that be more challenging? Dancing is dancing. Before you rip my throat please hear me out. I'm just using the same assumption you've made about scouting in the context of ballet. Scouting can get more challenging if it's done right, just like ballet. I'm waiting for Eagledad to chime in here but as long as there is opportunity to do more then there's challenge. If the scouts are treated like 12 year olds when they're 16 then sure, there's no more challenge. I have a 14 year old troop guide that has plenty of challenge right now trying to figure
  20. To be clear, if most of the scouts went on most of the campouts then this is a useless idea. However, that ended a decade ago as other extra curricular activities have ratcheted up participation requirements and scouting has not. Also I never meant to suggest that the event based patrols are the only patrols. Have regular, permanent patrols. The PLs, for each event, decide well enough ahead of time to modify those patrols to suit who is going, make sure nobody gets dropped, there's plenty of time to prepare. It certainly isn't ideal but adapts to a certain reality. The one stumbling block
  21. My idea was form the patrols for the event a month before the event. As soon as one camput ends the scouts should know their schedule well enough to decide if they can go on the next. This gives enough time to coalesce around the tasks that need to be done. I really dislike when the patrols start deciding the meeting before the campout. There's no way the new members will have had time to prepare for anything other than doing the usual meals, not to mention whatever the main event is at the campout. Then everyone wonders why there's no teamwork.
  22. Forgotten socks? How about forgotten feet? That was the worst scout smell in my car, ever. I told that scout to put the socks and shoes back on or he was walking home. It was a combination of rotting carcass, latrine, and teenager, after 45 miles.
  23. And the irony of the day: One of the hardest tasks in programming is defining the requirements. I'm not a fan of worksheets. It's kind of like the eagle project book. It's training wheels for organizing ones thoughts. let the scouts start struggling with this so they learn. I realize it's hard for teenagers to do this, but it's a skill that is very important.
  24. A rope with an eye splice in it would be ... single ended. If you really want some fun make a zero ended rope by doing a long splice back on itself. Give said rope to a scout and ask him to tie a square knot in it. (first he has to find the ends.) Promise him an ice cream if he can tie it in less than 5 seconds.
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