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ParkMan

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Everything posted by ParkMan

  1. In ten years as a unit volunteer i cannot ever remember a formal opening beyond "let's welcome Bob - who is attending tonight for the first time."
  2. I tend to agree. When I watched the video, it surely didn't look like an accident. It looked like he was thinking "hey, let's goof on this reporter." I agree - apologize in private. In pubic, I would much rather hear him own up to his actions and then accept the consequences that come from it. Make clear his contrition, but don't try to weasel his way out of it by minimizing it.
  3. To be fair though. The LDS loss is not indicative of anything about the program. That we're up 1% in membership is 1000 times more important to the longevity of the BSA than a 10% drop due to their departure. I say this not to demean the LDS church - not at all. They made a strategic decision to part ways and that is their right. That we nationwide are seeing growth exclusive of that loss is very, very promising. Thanks for sharing the news @Cburkhardt!
  4. I live in a bigger community with multiple packs & troops - but we face the same issue. What can a district or council realistically do to help a pack or troop with 5-10 kids? You can't make them recruit, you can't make them have a good program, you can't make them change their leaders. Sure - you can put commissioners on the case, you can setup trainings, etc. But - at some point - what do you really do? This is a real question that we face here in our district too.
  5. I'm going to guess this is part of the problem. The pack at their CO doesn't cross Scouts over to them anymore. I suspect you're right @Jameson76.
  6. This is what we do too. Empower smart people to make the right choice and then trust their judgement. The role of the committee is understand the needs of the program and then allocate resources (money, people, etc) to meet those needs. For money this is done by setting a budget or by approving funds for a special purpose. But, once those funds have been allocated, it's up to the responsible people to make the decisions on what to buy. It's not the job of the committee to make specific decisions like this.
  7. Hi @KeystoneCubmaster, I'm a big believer that forcing a senior leader transition in a pack or troop is fraught with problems. It leads to hurt feelings and politics - never a good thing. I'm also a big believer that you have to look for the good in volunteers - even a COR. I'd try to handle this by developing an open working relationship between the key 3. Do you all meet regularly as a group? In that forum do you all speak honestly with each other? I'd use that forum to work out differences of approach. There, be brutally honest with each other. But, outside that forum -
  8. Hi @qwazse, Sorry - my post was confusing in hindsight. I am suggesting that the SM enlist adult volunteer support for uniforming - not necessarily that all the adults uniform. As Scoutmaster you want adult support for transformative decisions. Yes, we'd like to think the adult volunteers will support the Scoutmaster, but it's still important for the SM to get folks behind a big decision. Going to a leaders/committee meeting and having a frank conversation about supporting this decision is helpful. That helps ensure that word gets around. It also helps that leaders encourage t
  9. I would encourage you to start with setting expectations about uniforming. When you become Scoutmaster, make it clear that you expect uniforms to be worn to meetings. This is a simple act that as Scoutmaster you can easily push for. When you become Scoutmaster, people will expect some amount of change to occur. New guy, new rules. So, take advantage of that. Of course, start it within the adult team. At a meeting, let the adults know that you want uniforms to be actively encouraged. Explain the reason in a way that is similar to what @qwazse did. You are doing this because taking
  10. Of course abuse is a serious crime. It's without question that the victims paid a terrible price. The BSA is at its heart a member funded youth development activity. Other than some endowments and camps, the BSA pretty much pays for its operations year to year. I contribute today so that my kids can benefit from Scouting. When this all came to light and the BSA had to pay, I would agree it was a tough, but important lesson for the BSA. But, continuing to damage the organization that is chartered to bring the Scouting program to my kids and then asking current members today to pay r
  11. Where this gets tricky is in how you compare the criteria against other aspects of the program. For example - what's better: a troop with 20 nights of camping at the same local campsite, but all planned and executed by Scouts a troop with 20 nights of camping of varying types and at interesting locations, but where adults are doing some of the planing. Where I struggle with the idea of giving commissioner's the power to enforce change. What makes a commissioner's judgement any better than the unit leaders? A troop decides it wants to be a backpacking troop - the unit c
  12. I think something like this is good to incorporate into training. I would shy away from making yet another metric ranking system. The problem I see isn't a lack of documentation on quality. It's a lack of local, hands on people who can help in relaying the concepts and making them understood. It's the lack of enough effective commissioners who understand how to enable and support units. The solution to the problem isn't yet more docs - it's getting people into roles who can make local training and coaching happen. The step needed to make that happen is a more effective district devel
  13. Gotta admit - I'm thoroughly not impressed by this change. Two of the weakest functions in districts today are membership teams and unit commissioners. It's utterly unclear what a district membership team really does. Unit Commissioners are really hard to recruit because it's not really clear what value they bring. So, this council is going to get rid of generally popular district roles (camping, activities, and training) and replace them with un-popular ones. Really? Who's going to want to do that? This seems like board/professional nonsense at it's finest. I do not believe that gi
  14. One of the better pieces of advice I've received was - pick a role you like and do it well. Don't try to do three jobs - you'll just end up doing each poorly. Instead, focus on the one you like the best and make it really successful.
  15. I've seen many of them and I agree that they are well done, impressive works of art. If the Civil War had ended and racism had ended then as well, I doubt we'd be discussing this. But, racism didn't stop at the end of the civil war and it was still going on strongly for at least another hundred years. As a result, these remembrances are intertwined with a very hateful, shameful period in our nation's history. Further, people are recognizing the deep hurt this prolonged period has caused. Out of respect to those our nation has caused so much hurt, there is a desire to remove such symbo
  16. Somewhere along the way in my life, this point hit me: Slavery and the many, many years of racism that followed it caused a great deal of hurt to a great many people in our country. It is a scar on the soul of our country. Enough people have said this kind of thing bothers them that In deference to the wishes of those who have suffered so much because of slavery and racism, I think that yes, we should not name councils in honor of Confederate generals. It really depends on who erected the monuments, parks, or buildings. If we think about it dispassionately, if your community
  17. Given how hurtful the memory of slavery is to so many in our country, I have no problem that this council has decided to choose a name that is not associated with the Confederacy. As I read the comments, I realized how little I knew of General Jackson. I did a quick scan of his bio on wikipedia. Looks like he was a West Point graduate who was born and lived in West Virginia. I'm going to infer that his role in the confederacy had more to do with a duty to his home state than to anything else. But, once he joined that army, he did his duty as a soldier and fought for that army. I ha
  18. That was my take too. Sounds like a name chosen by a committee. Bleh.
  19. BTW - When reading this I'm reminded of Verizon's "Inspire Her Mind" commercial. I always thought that commercial had a much more positive message. Be careful not to discourage your daughter's natural inquisitiveness because of traditional gender stereotypes. I think this is much more the tone of the BSA messaging towards girls
  20. If a child hasn't seen a family member in some time it is going to be very natural to be shy and reluctant. Encouraging a gesture like a simple hug to a distant family member helps reinforce that family bonds exist between family members who live at a distance. Decisions like this as full of pros and cons. A big part of parenting is to guide a child through these sorts of pros and cons. I don't mind a group like the GSUSA bring awareness to a parenting question so that we think about it. My only concern with this is that it perpetuates a false conclusion. It is simplistic to conclud
  21. Not to get into too much of a back and forth here. But, I'd just revisit my comment of before: To have a quality program, they have to build a quality program. I get your point that much of our success in the BSA has relied upon those already knowledgeable in the program coming back and becoming volunteers. In an era where that kind of knowledge is less available, we need to adjust. Successful packs and troops today build successful programs with longevity. Volunteers join a unit with an existing program and learn it. They then grow in experience and in a year or two take on a leader
  22. National financial problems - You are correct, these are due to the sexual abuse cases of the 70's, 80's, etc. The SBR was a bet that hasn't worked out too well - so yes, throw that in there too. Though volunteers did the abusing, that's not really the issue. That "the BSA" allowed it to happen for so long and go undealt with is the issue. These problems are not created by volunteers you are correct. Yes. National is here to build functioning councils. Councils are here to build functioning districts. Districts are here to support and enable strong unit programs. Part of en
  23. Again - it's a complex issue. We are doing our volunteers a disservice by not being frank with them. To have a quality program, they have to build a quality program. You can't take a couple of BSA courses and have enough knowledge to run a unit. You have to be humble enough to recognize that you have to continue to try, to work hard, to improve the unit. The Scoutmaster of our troop has been at is for 25 years. Yet, he still looks for new ideas and new things to do. He still listens to new voices and grows the program. No amount of training is every going to install the wil
  24. The cause of what is going on in the BSA is complex. But make no mistake, much of this is because of volunteer and program issues. My district has 15 packs. The largest 5 account for 70% of all the Cub Scouts in the District. The smallest 5 account for 10%. The largest pack is bigger than the smallest 5 put together. Each of these small packs recruits 2 or 3 kids a year. Do they do school talks - no. Do they put of flyers - no. Do they recruit at their CO - no. Do they spread the word through social media - no. All of those things our local council trains on, encourages, and pr
  25. It's easy to point at these cases and blame the lack of youth experience or training as the problem. These are really volunteer leadership and program issues. A Scoutmaster should be cultivating the adults in the program so that they build up to cold weather camping. With your typical Scout in the program for 4-5 years, there should be a bunch of experienced adults who have cold weather camped before - even if they were never Scouts as a youth. When a new parent joins, the Scoutmaster ought to say - "why don't you come on this camping trip in April". Then again in September, the
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