ParkMan

Fully agree and very good point. I'm just going out on a limb here - but as these girls all registered the first day they probably had a plan to do this. But, even if there was a little exuberance and a few "close enough" so they could achieve this on day one, I wouldn't sweat it. Honestly - my feedback to the "new" unit commissioner would be to not worry about checking up on the Scoutmaster and instead work to become a trusted adviser instead. A Scoutmaster needs a friend and adviser way more than someone to check up on them. When I was troop committee chair our unit commissioner was

I really wouldn't read too much into it either. Arguments about the right way to speak up for those who are disadvantaged are as old as our country itself. I think the fact that the Scout was out of uniform when leading the pledge at a City Council meeting bothers me more. You can argue about the point he was making by kneeling. Frankly I think it's blatantly disrespectful that he shows up to such a ceremony out of uniform. If leading the Pledge of Allegiance at your City Council meeting isn't a uniformed occasion then I can't imagine what one is.

For what it's worth, if I were a pack leader in this position my first step would be to decide if the pack is invested in admiting girls. I assume the answer is yes from your question - but I wanted to confirm. if the pack is in, I'd do: Go ahead and sign her up. If the bear den agrees - let her work with them. Be upfront with the father that BSA rules prevent her from meeting without a female present. Don't put yourself in that position for more than a few weeks up front. i.e. - I'll do it now, but someone needs to volunteer by March 15. Perhaps a mother of one of t

That's what I get for not reading the tags. Bummer! Thank you very much for correcting my misunderstanding.

I've looked at these a couple of times. The folks at the Scout Shop told me that they do require dry cleaning. That was a deal breaker for me and I opted for the poly-cotton. If someone has a different experience - I'd be interested to hear.

Thanks. Good to hear. Hopefully as we assemble something this will come through. My belief is that the packs ultimately want to be successful. They don't enjoy dens of one or two scouts. They don't enjoy scraping to find leaders. They don't enjoy overloaded Cubmasters. As a result, if we are successful in helping them they will ultimately have stronger packs and more scouts and more leaders. Net result is stronger programs. There's a lot of wishful thinking here - but I figure we've got to start somewhere.

Nice - I like that idea. One of the challenges I'm realizing now as I think about how to tackle these kind of problems at a district level is to find the best way to engage with the packs. I'd love to visit each pack personally - but realize that with 15-20 packs in the district that it will take time to get to them all. I fear that the packs will interpret it as the district preaching and tune out - but I'm not sure how else to do this in a timely way.

100% agree - very good point. Just curious - when you taught adult leader recruiting how did you do it? A class, roundtable, visit the units, something else?

I think this is the challenge of our time - adult participation. I've noticed that some units are good at this and some not so good. I recently was talking with a Cubmaster who told me that recent 2 deep rule changes were good because it challenged them to get more adults registered. It was a challenge for a few months, but they got there and today have a lot more registered leaders. I've seen that in our troop and in our district too. Many adults are just not comfortable in how to ask people to help. I know one group who will spend months discussing that they don't have enoug

I would encourage us all to look for ways to make this work. The first troop for girls in our district is off to a fantastic start. In fact, I've see a number of very experienced Scouters from around our community jumping in to help them get off to a great start. I envision a strong patrol method troop that will be growing rapidly. It's really easy to look at anything in Scouting and just see the obstacles. I think that's just human nature. We focus on the obstacles because they are painful and no fun. I just figure that the challenge to me is to figure out how to address them and m

If you haven't yet, I'd give it a shot to see if you could purchase them legitimately. I expect that it's the Scout Shop managers discretion to sell them or not. I'd call them up and explain the situation and ask. If they say no - then ask if they have a process to accomplish something like this. Maybe they"d let a district advancement chair ok it for example. If they say no - then I would push a little, but not too much. Next call would be to that district advancement chair. Then council advancement chair. Then DE, then SE. Someone must have the pull to officially do what we all do un

It strikes me that in two days, we'll have female Scouts BSA for the first time in our history. If the uniforms were available, that would be one thing. But, since they are not - I think you should feel absolutely free to improvise in whatever way makes it exciting and special for those new scouts. I definitly think this is one of those "big picture" times where doing what makes sense is a great way to go.

I'd suggest that this is where a good CC & committee comes in. They can be working with the adults to find the teachable folks and encourage them to help, finding the unteachables ones and discouraging them or finding them a nice side project.

Thank you for the very thought out reply @Eagledad. A few replies. Of course it is without question that prior Scouting experience is helpful. I come from a large pack & troop experience with a deep history. Our troop leadership team include 20+ active people - those include all kinds of Scouting experience and accomplishments. When a new Scouter shows up fresh to the troop, he or she has a lot of experience to draw upon. As a large troop, it is all but unhread of for us to simply take a new leader and say "you're on your own". We have all kinds of formal knowledge tr

Having youth Scouting experience does not make someone any more likely to be a better leader. Being a good leader in Scouting is more about a willingness to learn and embrace what the program is trying to accomplish. Being a great leader in Scouting is happens in people who are willing to be self-reflective and humble and strive to learn more. So the fact that 99.99 percent of women don't have youth both scout experience is a red herring. Just as we should encourage female Scouters to not look for cliques where they don't exist, so too should we challenge the way we discuss thes

I think this is a big part of it. Related to this is the lack of a SM and CC who is willing to tell someone to "sit down and stop talking." I've come to appreciate that the phrase "lead the ..." in those role descriptions is all about setting the tone and communicating the kind of pack or troop it is. I've found that when you've got a strong program that youth BSA experience is a bonus- but certainly not necessary. Just as two troops down the road are very different so too is most people's youth troops. Since our troop has a very strong sense of who we are, people adjust to how w

I largely agree with @sst3rd. My letter would be something like: Best of luck!

Just curious - what's their reason?

Yes - count me in. Training is a blast and helping to make training successful across the council is a great opportunity. Just tell me when the meeting is.

And I just finished the last patch to sew on too. Knew I should have waited. BTW - really I mean thanks for catching that and letting me know. Guess I'll have a vintage shirt now

This isn't the root of the problem. The root of the problem is unit quality. Many units out there just don't have the combination of desire/skills/talent to have quality programs. BSA rules and regulations have little to do with it. It's a strength of the BSA system that units are independent of the BSA. There's a secondary problem observed here in dysfunctional relationship that exists in many parts between unit and district. Districts shouldn't have let the relationships get so poor that it's considered sport to dislike the district folks. Similarly units have exasperated the prob

I'm a huge believer in the idea that improving unit programs is one of the best things we can do to grow Scouting. Good programs grow and attract more Scouts. I do think the BSA could set a little higher bar for Scouters. Require basic training for example. But, I don't see that creating an audit or accreditation process for units would be well received or have the desired results. Who would conduct these? Would the be subjective or objective? What would happen if a unit didn't implement the findings? Before we jump to a solution, I think we have to understand why it's happen

I've also shows away from the manager/subordinate mentality. Instead, I've used the phrase "we're all simply playing different roles to make the troop work". This has always led me to treat my fellow volunteers with the utmost professionalism. Seems to work pretty well for us.

I understand the idea behind this. It's pretty common today in many things we do. Basically - when something's not working as we'd like, as a society we look to a higher power to create some sort of testing or process to improve things. But, I don't think it's right for the BSA to do this. First - I'm with @David CO on this. Why would volunteers want to be part of a system where they are getting assessed and graded for what they do. No thanks on that one. Second - The BSA already has all kinds of systems in place to assist units. The biggest problem is that many areas don't uti

I've found that the best way to provide feedback is to understand the receiver and what they're trying to accomplish. If you're providing feedback to a Scoutmaster, get to know him first before you start telling him what to do. A good CC plays a role here too. A unit CC ought to be creating a volunteer culture where the group strives for teamwork & program quality mixed in with a dash of humility. I've been blessed to be part of units that for the most part always tried to do better. Self reflection and feedback was part of our culture. So, when a parent or Scouter shows up and s