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So far, I haven’t met scouts who settled for aging our at Life because of his badge. The boys who I’ve polled seem to have enjoyed the badge. Especially compared to the other citizenship MBs.

I didn’t see any of that. I encouraged the scouts to make the evening enjoyable around our troop campfire, which is situated conveniently lakeside. They seem to have managed to do that without much grief. (I wasn’t present because there was a bunch of close-out stuff for me to do.)

Well, if by future you mean two days later at home, there’s room for pessimism. From what I witnessed of the scout-mom interaction, the parents have a tough row to hoe. All we had left was the nuclear option of confining the whole troop to the campsite. I pushed that button for the sake of second- and third-year scouts. It’s a healthy lesson to know your actions impact others.

I love that “primordial goodness” bit, until I butt up against the head of a scout who picks and chooses the points he wants to obey. The day after a critical incident, the kid literally rattled off the law, skipping “courteous, kind, obedient.” I corrected him on his omissions and said, “You made vows. They define what a scout is. If someone is the opposite of 1/4 of those things, they are not a scout. This is a scout camp.” He tried, poorly, and still had to be sent home. After that, I dealt with self righteous older scouts who should know better but disregarded the same point

The net purpose, as with anything in these forums, is to give us a pulse on our nation’s and our world’s youth who enter and leave BSA. I manage to only provide a handful of scoutmaster conferences on youth in my troop, and have other meaningful conversations with youth and scouters (some of them minorities) outside of my troop. That’s not a representative sample. And, when one of these people ask probing questions about why things are the way they are (be it membership policies or taught line hitches) I find the frank observations and reactions on this forum to be invaluable. As to

The German scout association is an example of a highly federated system. It’s a very interesting model to observe. We see hints of it here in the very different uniforms of the various youth.

Please let the devotion be titled “What To Pray When You See Your Rope Fray!”

If it’s any consolation, I was talking to a mom whose kids are in sports and their fees are climbing as well. A sinking tide grounds all boats.

It’s like I have an evil twin.

If you want to have something up your sleeve for the next time Bobby spouts off, PM me, and I’ll share footage of Ukrainian defense forces using every scout skill in the book to rescue one of their mates.

Kudos to Bobby and Billy. Stop talking about advancement and start talking skills. Specifically for Bobby, tell him that strangers on the internet want him to recite the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and all four verses of the Star Spangled Banner from memory before he says one more word about politics. This week, we want him to memorize the headstones of the graves he decorates. Then, before he says his second word about politics, we want him to arrange a town hike with his patrol to the local court house to meet your mayor, he sheriff, or some other elected of

First mistake: a troop design that incorporates the name of the CO. Second mistake: slapping a troop design on every piece of property. Your identity is now with this CO. They were kind enough to take you in, you want to award them recognition on your new flag or whatever else you have. I would suggest you no longer bother with putting the CO’s name on every piece of cloth. Select a standard issue neckerchief, and use only your troop number on most of your gear. Let the CO know your concerns, but be prepared to flex to them.

Implicit in expanding market share, one of the purposes of professional staff is promote the program to the people who are not yet sponsoring scouts. That balance between catering to existing volunteers and seeking out new ones (be they scouters, board members, donors, or CO’s) is precarious.

Point: I have a scout with ADHD who is struggling to master knots. He’s doing it, but it’s a challenge. How is it fair to him if your scouts can advance without knowing how to tie all of the knots that they should? Counter-point: is the SM testing on land navigation? Safe swim defense? Fire building? Cooking? Bill of rights? Pull-ups? If not, why is the conference only covering a fraction of he skills a scout should have?

It’s not true. All of the standard operating procedures didn’t come out of thin air. Someone somewhere got hurt. There’s a thread somewhere in this forum about a suicide at camp. It may be that the quote is out of context. On a range following protocols to the letter, it’s hard to imagine how a fatality could occur. I hope to high heaven that 4-H has never experienced anything like this. How this happens? The modern interpretation of second amendment rights lends itself to gun enthusiasts who are not (possibly never were) part of a well-trained local militia.

It's nice that some years back, leaders of the pack and troop thought that some money should flow in the direction the troop treasurer observed flowing. They had their reasons. But ... If your units did not have by-laws approved by the units and the CORs (and therefore the CO), then that is not an ensconced policy. So the reply to the troop treasurer should be, "Great, show me the by-laws specifying what should be transferred so the treasurer can note it the memo."

Don’t blame the organization or its members. Blame the people who took advantage of it and the subculture that encouraged them to act that way. Personally, I don’t care if a scouter from other parts would show up with or without children of his/her own. I’m letting him/her in slowly. My advice: show up at round table in your district. Look for training opportunities. Have fun. Meanwhile, participate in local clubs that do activities related to the merit badges that you counsel. Those adults might have other connections that you might enjoy making.

The council or the one it merged with could still have a record of that award. The local library should have community newspapers for that period.

No. National and regional polls of youth who are not in scouting and their families would begin to answer that. But, knowing the numbers might help BSA ask better questions. Moreover, similar reports from BSA and other Title 36 organizations would give policy makers a sense of how their constituents could be served.

If your biggest brag over the last decade has been about opening more program to girls, yes enumerating by sex would be your national duty. This is a global concern and intrinsic to WOSM’s census( https://members.scout.org/membership-report-methodology) If your elected representatives are claiming to address the needs of minorities and seeking programs that do that, you should report the information that you’ve collected on the matter. There are reasonable constitutional concerns about reporting religion to elected officials. On the other hand, the changing landscape of support from

So, roughly 10% of youth members are female. Now, why couldn’t Mosby up and say that in the annual report?

I didn’t want to imply that liability for youth heterosexual assault (or even unwanted consensual relations) was the sole mover. There is also a sincere belief among Americans that youth do better in a unisex environment. Exactly how they do better is an open question. The developmental psychology of it all really doesn’t matter. Parents do vote with their feet. The fastest growing scouting organizations in the world are generally unisex. The fastest shrinking division in BSA, Venturing, was predominantly co-ed. Our execs see England and Sweden as either 1) an anomaly or 2) a long term st

Based on the smiles I see every week, it’s still fun. Personally, I always found forestalling death to be intrinsically fun. Being a scouter is more demanding, perhaps. But, I was close to my kids’ soccer coaches, and it was no piece of cake for them either. Teaching Sunday school requires more paperwork than it used to. I finally got my brother to come to an orienteering club event with me. Minimum paperwork. No responsibilities except to clock in at finish at the allotted time, which we didn’t. The terrain beat on us something fierce. We even missed a turn on the two hour ride

This is very simple: what policy is most likely to forestall death? Do that.

@AwakeEnergyScouter, you and your dad were in an organization that did not face staggering litigation for damages when someone from gender A assaulted someone from gender B. I discussed the BSA’s legal situation with several Scandinavian scouters, and they couldn’t imagine that the staggering scenario that we face would happen to any organization in their country.