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BadenP

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Everything posted by BadenP

  1. Unfortunately any FOS funds going to the VOA is at the sole discretion of the SE, there is no BSA requirement mandating a percentage be allotted to the VOA. After over 15 years in Venturing I have heard many of these stories, but good luck trying to find anything in official BSA publications to substantiate it.
  2. If the MAIN purpose of your summer camp is to earn badges then your priorities of a summer camp are all screwed up. Camp should be fun as its first priority, and a learning experience as a secondary priority. The reason we continue to lose boy scouts at alarming rates is because we continue to cram down their throats topics and experiences that they could care less about. Too many troops are run like a schoolroom, but in this case the result has been boys dropping out in large numbers and troops folding up.
  3. As a pastor of a nondenominational Christian church fortunately we do not have to deal with this issue very often. The local Catholic pastor by instruction from his Bishop told me that the policy in his diocese is that scouts in Catholic sponsored units must be given a "Catholic" emphasis in ANY religious discussions, instructions, or activities, such as troop or Eagle projects. The Bishop stated " he does not want any Catholic youth exposed to any Hypocritical, Blasphemous, or False doctrines or teachings." Sometimes I think it would be Much easier on scout leaders, CO's, and the youth if
  4. I have to agree with most of you. If you build it, and build it right, going back to the beginning of the BSA with what worked and reemphasizing those aspects is the best starting point. BSA in the 21st century has become a stronghold for techno geeks and the outdoor program is practically gone in most areas. skeptic, I agree with your last post but the problem with the approach is that National loves to see camps fail so they can have the council sell them off and get their share of the money. In my council the last camp left standing last year had severe plumbing problems which closed it fo
  5. Stosh With the troop at my church the leaders tried a variety of methods, PLC, no PLC, SPL, no SPL, but what really seemed to be the issue was the way the program direction being controlled by the adult leaders instead of the boys. So a suggestion was made to the troop adult leaders to let the boys have the control and the boys decided to try a 1910 original BP style campout. It was a great success and the boys even left all their electronics in their packs. Mother Nature was the star and the boys had a ball fishing, rafting, and mountain climbing.
  6. Eagle 94 In spite of all the naysayers here your PLC did the right thing that will also help the boys to mature faster and be ready for what life has in store for them. Also that is the way it is supposed to be done in scouting, no patrol should be all long time friends as that could lead to disciplinary problems in the troop. Boy Scouts is supposed to teach leadership and help boys mature into young men, you can't do that if your patrols are just gangs of school friends. KUDO'S to your PLC.
  7. crew67 Let me tell you from 15 years in Venturing that in this case qwazse is correct, Venturers are allowed much more leeway in types of activities unlike troops or packs. Stosh if a group of boys decide to go go-carting for fun and it is not a BSA violation if the parents give their permission, and they can NOT be removed from a troop since it was NOT a scout activity. The GSS applies only to SCOUTING activities done as a troop, patrol, pack, or den.
  8. To sum it all up what is truly wrong with the scouting program today begins and ends at the National Office, the CSE, and the unprepared and incompetent SE's they are placing in the field, many of whom are bankrupting the councils they are assigned to instead of building them up and making them successful.
  9. For me this discussion is quite interesting as I have a Venturing crew that is half male and half female and we have a terrific program. We have invited girl scout troops and boy scout troops to join us on our outings and have had great success without trying to convince them to leave their own programs. As the song says "Girls just wanna have fun". As leaders I think we all know of weak troops and crews with little to no outdoor program and who are floundering trying to stay alive, allowing them to have some really great and worthwhile outdoor experiences has breathed some new life into those
  10. Stosh I agree with you 100%. Sea Scouting has had a strong and long time respected position in the annals of the BSA.
  11. WOW This topic discussion went on for three years, and where are we now as the BSA continues to sadly flounder at an even greater pace, councils being merged at an even faster pace, membership continues to plummet, Mazzucca bailed out when all the "controversial issues" hit his desk, the gay leaders debate still has not been put to rest., National has taken upon themselves now to sell council camps as membership continues to drop. Twelve camps have been sold in my council alone since Jan. 2016 and seven more are on the block currently. People, the BSA is in a true crisis right now that will be
  12. Eamonn I concur entirely with your synopsis of the situation. As a DE years ago I had two solid district committees in place which made my job goals a lot easier to achieve each year. I had the two strongest and best organized and run districts in the council , we had at least three times the district activities of all the districts and the volunteers loved it. Knowing your volunteers well and showing them you really do care about them and their units is the best recipe for success.
  13. If your district committee is NOT helping your units deliver and develop solid programs for your units then they do not belong in their current positions and should be replaced ASAP.
  14. The problem is not the District but rather those scout leaders who really do not have a clue how a council and district are supposed to work hand in hand in delivering the program to the youth. True in too many councils the only priorities are money and numbers and nothing else and that is where the conflicts and animosity begins. Some of the complainers here I think feel that it is the council's job to do everything to make a unit succeed rather than take responsibility for their unit leaders who do not go to training and do the absolute minimum in delivering an exciting program to the youth
  15. Time for National to do some deep soul searching of their priorities for the program and its future direction or face the very real threat of the extinction of scouting as we know it. It is truly sad that after a century of a great program National is dealing with a sinking ship of lack of direction and mismanagement.
  16. If a small private group wanted to they could easily and quickly set themselves up as a so called religious organization online. They could call themselves ABC Ministries, have one adult get ordained online as a Reverend and they would be good to go as a " legitimate religious group" under the new BSA rules. This would give their CO the option to reject any and all LGBT leader candidates unlike their non religious counterparts. I wonder if the BSA even thought of that before coming up with these ridiculous new rules?
  17. Fred,and others, WE are not talking about laws here or separation of church and state, rather we are speaking of a select group of individuals at National deciding that there should be two separate sets of rules deciding who you can or can not have as volunteers as a CO depending on whether you are a religious based CO or not. The two versions of these new rules lacks any real forethought or common sense and will probably result in even more scouts and leaders leaving the program. The CO and ONLY the CO should be the one deciding who are the appropriate candidates for their unit leaders. .Nat
  18. Fred Why should only the religious CO's have the right to discriminate against gay leaders and not CO's of organizations with their own codes of morality and decency as many service organizations do? I will tell you why, because National allows churches CO's much more leeway and control in the running of the BSA program because of the numbers and money they receive from them, just another example of how directionally lost National is with and within the scouting program. A nonreligious CO who finds a gay leader unacceptable because of their own rules or code of conduct should have EQUAL r
  19. While this new policy seems long overdue it seems hypocritical to me that this is restricted ONLY to religious CO's and not ALL CO's , separate but not equal. These continuing inconsistencies by National is why they will continue to be subject to constant criticism by the press, the membership, and the general public. IMO National has lost its way in leading the BSA into the 21st century, as is reflected by continuing declining membership numbers and the loss of corporate supporters on an ever increasing scale.
  20. A plain Fleur-de-lis can be used and is NOT a copyrighted or protected symbol/trademark. Our troop has on their neckers an image of the patrol animal head with an embroidered fleur-de-lis underneath it, made by a local company who does an excellent job. We have never had a problem from National Office, in fact we even gave one to a former CSE who was visiting our council and commented how great they looked.
  21. There is an old saying that" any organization must grow and change with the times or it will become obsolete." The BSA is no exception and unfortunately has made some poor decisions in its recent program changes and its policies.
  22. NJ The CO does not own the BSA program otherwise National would not be able to revoke their charter, or memberships of its members, they rather charter to have the right to use the BSA program with their youth. My point was you can not have two different sets of membership rules within the same organization and still be considered credible. In other words if a CO denies a boy joining their troop with his friend solely because he is gay that is blatant discrimination and the so called "local option" is nothing more than a crock because the BSA is too afraid of taking a stand one way or the
  23. If the BSA comes out and allows gay leaders and scouts as a National policy but allows a CO to discriminate based on their own religious/political beliefs then we have two separate groups of scouts part of the same organization, which is inconsistent and will definitely lead to future lawsuits, as well as being just plain poor business practice. A National Policy has to be the same for all membership or it is weak and lacks any credibility. The BSA can NOT have their cake and eat it too. They have to either have the courage to say all are welcome or allow the discrimination that the local opti
  24. I have to agree with Bad Wolf as to what does the BSA really stand for anymore? The local option IMO is nothing more than an appeasement that will still not solve anything. What about district , council, regional, and National events how will these leaders and units interact with each other? Will dining halls have a Gay and Straight section? This whole issue is being handled so poorly by National who still fear losing more corporate sponsors so are trying to make everyone happy and it just will not work. Which ever way this issue gets decided it IS going to mean we will lose more scouts and le
  25. As a former DE at one council I went through 3 SE's in 5 years, the first one put the council into financial turmoil, and got himself promoted to a bigger council, the second SE was fired for embezzlement of council funds, and the third sold off the council camp and other assets in order to pay the debt from the first guy before he was transferred to National. Do SE's have power, yes as long as National backs them up and keeps promoting their incompetence. Once you make SE ,unless you commit a major crime, National will just keep transferring you around until its time for you to retire. So to
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