ParkMan

Thanks for the warning @Eagledad. I could imagine that happening. In our troop, my goal is that the chairs understand the goals of Scouting in their area and then work to see that the troop is moving in that direction. Because we're a big troop, we're fortunate to have a lot of great Scouters in our midst. So, I can have someone who in another life might be a Scoutmaster and ask him to be the activities chair. He can come up to speed on the youth led concepts and then see that our planning process, calendar, trips, and other activities are moving in that direction. My role as Commit

We have a new parents guide - but to be honest, it's not terribly useful. Many parents, and most leaders, simply don't bother to read it. Two things we've done that seem to help: 1) We've worked to create strong "chairs" for the different areas of troop life. i.e.: advancement chair, activities chair, treasurer, fundraising chair, membership chair, etc. These are the people we turn to for interpretation of the BSA rules. For example, it gives the advancement chair a reason to become an "expert" on the guide to advancement. 2) we hold a new parents meeting each spring. At

@GreenBarHill welcome to the forum. Thank you for taking on the Cubmaster role!

What works best for us is to get comfortable with the BSA source materials. Have a question about advancement, check the guide to advancement. Have a question about uniforming, check the Guide to Awards and Insignia. This may seem obvious - but when we tend to bump into a problem, I find it's often because we haven't taken the step to really understand the official guidance on how to do things. I think this topic is a great example of that. Some documents we go to regularly are: Guide to Advancement Boy Scout Handbook Boy Scout Requirements book Guide to Sa

If we had something like this happen in our troop, this is what we'd do too. Someone would pull together a short presentation - perhaps a few slides or a one page summary. It would generally capture: the problem the BSA rules and guidance on the subject a recommendation of how we proceed Then we'd walk the group through it. In our case, most leaders would say "interesting... never realized that. Guess we need to do something different." We'd discuss the recommendation - make a change or two and then pretty much go with it. One thing I have learned along the w

From what I see that is a big part of what this is aiming to do. Provide district, council, etc. professionals and volunteers the tools and freedom to try things that they have not in the past. For example, a take the Roundtable topic. I expect there will still be a goal to have some sort of networking and continuing training for Scouters. In years past there would be requirement that you had to have a Roundtable meeting every month that follows the standard format. Going forward, a district could come up with some other format for the meeting or other way to accomplish that goal.

I wonder if it would help to talk with the parent about the things the Scout could do to help increase her prospects of getting chosen. It's tough sometimes to simply accept - they chose someone else. While that's a useful lesson in life to learn, it also can be a good motivator to make yourself the obvious choice for next time. You mentioned: Are there somethings she could do to position herself to be the clear choice next time? Volunteer more for within the group, speak up more often, make it clear that this is something she wants? We see this in our troop. We have yout

Again - I just think you have to be up front here. You're not being discriminatory by having a troop for boys or a troop for girls. Just be clear about who you are and what you're doing. But, I do think there is a practical difference between: a troop inviting only the boys of a pack to their event a troop that has always been a troop for boys continuing to be a troop for boys.

I gotcha. We all know that they reason troops invite packs to events is for recruiting. However, from that pack perspective, these are great events to encourage Scouts to continue along in the program. We have all kind of Cubs visit our troop knowing full well they will never join. We do this in order to help these younger Scouts in their journey and hope a few decide to join us. So, now we're in a world where we might have some girls visit us. So what? Yep, they can't join our troop, but we sure can serve as older role models and encourage them to continue along in Scouting. E

I think you capture well the kinds of things that lead to the "status quo". I'd also agree that there are some things that, yes, an individual employee or volunteer cannot change. As example of that would be a rank requirement. Even with the the reasons you list, there is still a lot that can be done. History is full of examples where folks look at whatever problem they have and come up with creative solutions to problems. That's how innovation happens. What I see if this being an attempt by the BSA to train, empower, and encourage folks to do just that. Again - I think that's a

It seems I mis-read it a bit. I got confused with some of the comments and thought it was the pack that was equivocating here. I stand corrected and apologize. I still do not care for this situation though. 1) If a troop invites the den, you can't back out because a girl is a member. You do your research ahead of time. if there is a girl, you whole invite her to participate too. 2) If a troop invites a den, they invite the whole den. If the den is mixed gender, then they simply make clear that there isn't a linked troop here and come joining time, there isn't a membership o

Legal action seems strong, but as a whole, this pack sure doesn't seem to have their act together. You can't invite girls to attend and then backpedal. That is tantamount to gender discrimination. You're either 100% in or you're not. I think they are even fine with saying "we're in if we get 5 scouts". But, inviting girls to join, attending meetings, excluding them from events - that's just wrong. The other unfortunate thing here is this seems similar to some of the other petty unit politics we see. Pack makes a decision, someone complains, so they make a different decision. It get

We've got similar things like this at work. I learned more about Polaris today. As I understand it now, it's really about providing volunteers and employees a process to solve problems. In conjunction, it sets the expectation that those employees and volunteers are then empowered to go solve those problems. The belief is that the net result of this is employees and volunteers going out and solving the problems that prevent the BSA from delivering value to Scouts and units. Large organizations, like the BSA, do these kind of things to set the tone across their organization. Betwee

I'd just sign up directly. Nice thing about the OA is you get to ignore the SM if you want to.

Thanks! Got it. I'm guessing that the BSA staff would probably say that they do that - with the caveat that there are some things staff does which simply keeps the lights on (like FOS - which for the sake of discussion, I'd leave out of the discussion for now). Would be interesting to hear some ideas on how folks think the BSA should do that. As a reminder for others, here's the 8 methods: Scouting Ideals. Patrols. Outdoors. Advancement. Personal Growth. Adult Association. Leadership Development. Uniform.

FWIW In our pack, one thing we did to keep annual costs down is we didn't ask scouts to buy the hats and actively discouraged parents from buying the standard neckerchief slide. So, all a parent had to buy every year was the neckerchief and the scout book. As a parent, I'm glad my son still has his old neckerchiefs and scout books. The hat & official slide - I don't miss them.

I have a personal tradition. When I change units, I get a new shirt. That's brought me to 4: original shirt that I replaced after a few years pack shirt troop shirt district shirt

Sounds like a good spinoff topic. Premise: Assume that the goal of Polaris it to help make the program more efficient. Question: What would we as unit Scouters want to see in a more efficient program? Either in terms of program itself, or in support from district/council/national volunteers & professionals.

We have stuff like this at work come out periodically. In my experience, these initiatives are about influencing how people do their work. They are not the goal in itself. More specifically, I expect that this is not about the BSA spending 18 months becoming an efficient organization or about reorganizing staff. It is about employees and volunteers taking actions that are focused on the qualities Polaris describes.

I wouldn't read too much into the Polaris idea. It's not that it's bad, but there is a lot of instituonal momentum built around trying the make the BSA work. Truthfully, I see very little BSA overhead that we deal with in our unit. I am in favor of the larger goal - improving Roundtable. Roundtable is our district is a wasted resource today. I'd love to see some attention on making it more relevant.

I've yet to meet any parents who want what you all keep referring to as "Family Scouting." Every parent I talk with wants their kids to have a great Scouting experience - have fun, learn a lot, enjoy camping, develop some new skills. I've never met anyone who joined a Boy Scout troop so they can go on family camping trips. Those folks that want family camping go family camping.

@DuctTape was correct - I was describing stages of development for Scouts. I appreciate the thoughts since my last post. You've all hit on some things that were rattling around in my head too. I would agree that Scouts are learning skills and developing traits even 11 or 12 that will help prepare them for stages 2 & 3. I fully expect there is some overlap here. The liked the idea of these stages because I sense that stage 3 (and sometimes stage 2) is very nebulous for many Scouters. We tend to focus on the on concept here (boy led) or on technique used here (i.e. learni

I thnk part of the reason for that is that they are very different skill sets in a Scoutmaster. Years 1-2 - stage 1 - about a Scout learning core outdoor skills. Years 2-4 - stage 2 - about a Scout learning how to be a leader of a small team and accomplish tasks involving others Years 3-5 - stage 3 - about a Scout learning how to be an organizer and leader of other leaders I'm not military, but if I were, I might draw the analogy: Years 1-2 - Scout boot camp Years 2-4 - Becoming a senior enlisted scout Years 3-5 - Becoming an officer The patrol metho

Good point. I see a common thread in patrol method discussions that implies that adults need to leave the Scouts alone to figure things out on their own. It's as if the patrol method is somehow based on the concepts of: learning through failure learning through self realization While I fully embrace both concepts, I think there's also room for the Scoutmaster to serve as coach. Here the Scoutmaster can do a wonderful job of raising the expectations and broadening horizons for the scouts. I think that's a really good thing.

In our area they are called multi-level troops. We've got several around here. It's not unusual to see them at 50+ members. So, if our area is any indication, this is allowed within the GS structure. Most of the ones I know of run the full program range - Daisies through Ambassadors. There is one I know of that is split in half - similar to the Pack/Troop breakdown.