MattR

The all mail program sounds really boring to me. Not even all email? What's wrong with local option here? You want a troop that's for boys only. I understand that. Someone else wants girls only or coed.

We had 25 one year. It was really hard. If you can come up with a way to even things out, and everyone is happy with it, I'd suggest that. The first important question you need to ask is why all these scouts picked your troop instead of the others. If the others are running a similar program and these scouts just randomly decided to pick your troop then a friendly round table with the other troops is a great idea. If the scouts picked your troop because the other troops were rude, ignored the visiting webelos, or have a horribly boring program, then you have a bigger challenge. In this

I have no doubt the recently large drop is due to the membership change. But I have no idea how this will effect things in the long term. Yes, it's been bad for 3 years. But I'm not talking about what has happened in the past 3 years. I'm talking about what has happened over the past 50 years. The numbers have been going down for one reason or another since the 60s even though the population has gone up nearly 40% in that time frame. I don't know what the scout membership was in the 60's but it's a lot more than now and it should have been going up, not down.

Funny? This is based on experience. The girls were singing Christmas songs and the boys were wrestling.

Why does everyone assume that coed scouts means every unit, at every level, will be coed? Would an all girls scout troop using the BSA model work? Now let's say that there is an all boys troop and an all girls troop that shares the same committee. Different SMs. Different calendars. Shared gear. Shared committee. Shared CO. The parents bring all the kids to the same place so family scheduling just got easier. If these units are really following the patrol method, when they do go to the same place to go camping and are 100 yards apart, would it be a problem? The girls can sing songs around thei

I suspect different beliefs handle this differently. I have no problem with the concept of struggling with God; for all sorts of reasons. Others see it differently.

The parents seem to have 2 excuses. One is they're too old to do sleep overs and therefore have to drive home every night and that extra hour on either end of the day is really going to impede their ability to spend some time with their sons. The other is that those that will stay a few days ... really have no excuse. It'll cost them an extra $5 in gas or something. Split the added cost over the scouts in the car and it's between $1 and $2 extra per scout. I'm trying to figure out how to say this courteously but I'm having troubles. Tell the adults to just suck it up and stay for a few day

There have been other changes over the decades other than gays. One of the biggest has been that life is more competitive than it used to be. The economy is certainly more competitive. Someone once told me that decades ago if you asked a parent what they wanted for their children they would tell you they wanted their kids to be good. Now, they'll tell you they want their kids to succeed. Art is now competitive. Marching band, Dancing with the Stars, American Idol. Something is wrong when art is about winning. Whereas scouts used to be about being good, now it has to be about succeeding. If

I'm curious as to what they mean by basics. We do something similar, NSP from when they join until summer camp. My PLs didn't say they lacked basics, they said some scouts lacked maturity. Some scouts would be able to move in to a patrol after one campout while others would take a year, or maybe more. How can I spread that out? I like the idea of not moving them into patrols all at once. I don't want the "last one picked" scenario. Maybe some sort of requirements to sign off. I don't know, 3 campouts with a positive evaluation of the Scout Law?

For me it's not mixed age vs same age. Personalities and friendships have more to do with it than anything else. Scouts need friends. Without friendships scouts start dropping around 13 when they start finding friends elsewhere. Friendships can be of similar ages or different. Similar ages are what everyone thinks about. If the ages are different it's more like an older/younger brother relationship. Depending on whether the "brothers" are respectful of each other defines whether the friendship will work. If it does it's magic. At the same time, a group of same aged scouts with different p

I agree that relatively few scouts are looking for more challenging adventures. A lot are looking for recognition by adults as peers, but I wouldn't say all of them are. Many are looking for recognition from their peers. All of them are looking to see where they fit in and if they find something they like that contributes to the unit then they're happy as can be. It could be working with younger scouts or it could be bigger adventures. Some like OA. I have a scout I can't quite figure out and he certainly is looking. Very bright. Very witty. Good heart. He will try new things. But can come acr

You know, after 19 pages there has been no blood spilled and we found something we agree on.

To paraphrase James Carville, "It's the program, stupid." Fixing MBs, fixing adult training, fixing the image, focusing on kids having fun while learning self sufficiency. I agree with all of these and that there are lots of things to work on. However, there's one place to start and that would be national. Talk about sclerotic. There is either no leadership or they have no idea what the program is about. There probably are some people there that have been in scouts and stay connected, but my guess is there are a lot of turf wars going on and no focus on the big picture. Honestly, if they'd

I think the only way around this is local option, but is transgender a local option? Gays scouts isn't. Gay adults are. Just wondering what was said.

blw2, just my 2 cents but here's another view of you being part of the solution. Rather than being confrontational how about going to the SM and saying, just like you've told us, "I'm worried about my son and the scouts in that patrol. They don't want to go to summer camp. Because of this my son is losing interest. Would it be okay if I talked to the scouts and the parents to find out what's going on? Can you give me any advice on how to talk to them? Is there a way the troop does this sort of thing?" Don't quote chapter and verse about patrol method, boy led. Just talk about what you see with

Adamcp, what were the ages of the people you worked with? Also, is there a medical diagnosis? I mean, who decides? If it's the parent, as the BSA says, this sounds like medical marijuana in Colorado and that was abused no end. I would think a doctor that really understands this would be able to make a better decision for a kid than scouters or parents.

Here's an old example of "a friend to all": At the end of a long day of political wrangling, President Reagan would often call Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill, and ask, “Hello, Tip, is it after six o’clock?†“Absolutely, Mr. President,†the Speaker would answer. “After six o’clock†meant work hours were over, and the two leaders of their respective parties could put away their swords and bring out their Irish whiskey and wit. I remember all the voters going crazy and getting personal over these two and yet they could still be friends. Now, showing any underst

I see two different issues here. The first is transgender and the second is coed. First the TG. Irrespective of how any kid comes to thinking of TG, the kid will likely have issues. Just like a whole mess of other kids in my troop. The kid wound too tight. The two kids that were legally removed from their parents. The kid with PTSD from watching his mom smoking crack. The kid with Down's. The numerous kids that saw their parents go through an ugly divorce, some of whom are seeing shrinks. The kids without fathers. The kid that cuts himself. The momma's boys. The kids that are just down. Al

I like CalicoPenn's statement - the scouts don't eagle out so much as they quit. Earning Eagle is just one method, it's not the aim. There are a lot of people that don't understand that. Part of the real aim is to keep them interested for as long as possible so they keep learning new things as they mature. Some kids are just wired to only be interested in recognition. Fun or even challenge without recognition is of no interest. Those kids just want to get the patch and move on. I guess that's fine, we do what we can. But I'm not going to change things for them to make it easier or hard

Not quite sure I understand but if the idea is to get people with no hearing problems to understand then how about working it from their point of view. Give a presentation as a mime. Use slides so the audience has to read what you want to say. All you have to do is point where they have to read. Start off with slides that explain what you're doing. Go on to slides that tell a story. The first few slides are fine, everyone can read them. Just about the time the suspense thickens modify the slide so parts of the story is blocked. Just place a block over the text so the audience can only read so

Shift, it seems to me that what you really want, the purpose you're here, is to convince us that the BSA is not worthy and that we should leave. You never really asked a question. It was always a statement. So all I can think is you want us to join you in your denunciation of the BSA. We won't. While we all see weakness in the BSA we stick around because we know it also has it's good. Some kids learn something and have fun doing it. That's all we're looking for. You said "I can't teach young people about the Scout Oath or Law, when I know that is not what all scouts are." If everyone follo

Chocolate and too sweet? I hate to say it but that sounds American. Our scouts really like cooking competitions and they come up with some really good stuff. They've recently been comparable to the adults. Part of that is some of the adults that used to have way too much fun (someone brought a smoker once) have aged out and the newer adults just don't cook. As soon as the competition is over the scouts go back to the usual nasty junk they do over and over and over, until the next competition. In other words, cooking just to enjoy good food? Nope.

This isn't exactly what the OP is about but we just want a clear description of what the goal of the project is. If the beneficiary signs off on it, and it's very clear what the project is then there are no surprises at the end. I'm not a fan of the new eagle project process because the council can sign off on a vague project and then there are surprises. I can see how some flexibility is important because plans change, but we started seeing, since the new changes in the planning, plans change along the lines of the scout just deciding he didn't want to do all of what he said he'd do. The bene

Haven't a clue, NJ. He looks like he's wearing an army uniform but I thought the pants were supposed to be blue. As for his rank, he's got stars, or he wouldn't be standing where he is. What does strike me is his posture. Note to self, never salute while standing next to someone in the military.

Tahawk and Deaf scouter, I think you both just failed the Turing test. Just a hunch, but the OP looks to me like a random bunch of lines pulled out of previous threads related to this subject.