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For clarification, no girl in my crew was ever interested in a MB. But I have met those who were. The pressure to maintain the distinction comes from two sides. Many venturers want to be more than "Boy Scouts for girls". For example, I suggested that the names for the revised venturing awards (which were previously Bronze, Gold, and Silver) be renamed "Star Venturer", "Life Venturer", "Eagle Venturer" -- after all there's an Eagle on on the highest award in venturing. That got zero traction. Similarly, I have no sense that BSA and GS/USA cultures will mix on a national level. If the venturing membership continues to shrink, there is no indication that more American youth will be served by further merger. It falls upon independent scouting organizations, like BPSA, to prove that inclusive membership policies will lead to more youth being served better than what we have with the traditional American model.

Remote psychiatric diagnoses are flawed in many ways (as I'm comparing family history reports with actual clinical interviews). The differentiation between Asperger's syndrome and Antisocial Personality is certainly the case. Regardless, the SM is probably no social worker. He just needs how far to adjust the bar for each boy. Then he can read up on how to modify trail to First Class requirements. If a kid is gonna die trying to swim, SM needs to know before they head to the pool. If he's severely dyslexic, SM needs to know before the boy is stuck reading a script for a CoH. If he's colorblind to particular colors, SM needs to find color-substituted maps before sending him and his patrol off on land-navigation. In all those cases, the SM sits with the PL and explains the situation as best he can and makes sure the SPL/PL understands the fine line between helping and embarrassing a scout. This is no different. Don't need a diagnosis. Need to know what hasn't worked, what has worked, and what could be done differently next time. @@UncleP's monthly feedback to the SM provides this ... at least until the boy starts trusting his patrol enough to interact with them. My observation: boys can be pretty flexible, yet firm when necessary, once they understand that someone isn't "wired" like them. Most scouts rise to that challenge. But, they can give up on the first or second overture if they don't get this. The advantage for the other scouts? Once they figure this out with a few "tough ones" they learn that other seemingly normal boys may also need the same kind of persistence in one or more areas of life.

One thing about the awards and recognition program in venturing, such as it is: The one venturer in my crew who worked on an award (Religious Bronze), was thrilled to not have to muck about earning patches for "every little thing" like her younger sister was doing in girl scouts. Truth is, GS/USA, for it's older scouts, also moves away from a badge-based model to a personal growth model for it's Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards. As a counter-point to my venturers. There are young women who wish they could officially be awarded merit badges. I guess if yours is a heavily BSA family, those little round patches carry substantial value. I guess one could think of our modern Eagle scout requirements as an amalgam personal growth challenges (service project, positions of responsibility) and discrete discovery challenges (merit badges) for the sake of today's youth. Or, perhaps, it was to simply give older boys some more "serious" things to work towards.

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Venturing.aspxis the official line on venturing. Youth may join at age 14, or if they graduated from 8th grade they may join at age 13. The limiting of crews to boys or girls really boils down to the availability of male and female adult leaders. I must say, at this age very few youth are interested in awards. They are interested in nationally recognized certifications (e.g. lifeguard, wilderness first aid, EMT, jr. .NRA ...). But, that interest depends on the crew you land in. The best thing to do is find out about crews in your area, talk to some venturers, and see how they operate. In the mean time, you may want to look up American Heritage Girls.

I guess scouting provides a little "kicking around by life" service to the boys. But, just like soccer balls, the wrong kick will send them out of the game! Learning to work with others is a huge challenge most days. Hopefully he'll come around to reaping the benefits of doing so with his patrol.

Now that we merged. Troop adult registrations come out of the troop budget. The real cost to adults is keeping up with training. Which they pay in their own time/internet fees. Crew, everyone - adult or youth - pays their respective share of registration fees. Again, this pales in comparison to time spent getting trained.

Troop: dues (about $100 per scout, can't remember adults) popcorn (if anyone wishes), car wash, and spaghetti dinner. I honestly don't memorize the treasurer's reports but our budget is a few thousand, and the dinner is our largest income, dues and car wash tied for second, popcorn a distant third. Crew: occasional generous contribution. Otherwise everything is paid by the youth or their parents a la carte. So, we try to budget each event on a break-even basis (plus maybe a little to cover rechartering fees).

Did not know, so thanks for the heads up! I use google sites, and on one page with two links, one of the links to photo albums was bad. I'm thinking one might have been old (and therefore archived) albums, and the other new. I don't have a fix, but if I do, I'll let you know. If I'm really bored, I may accost some of the design geeks on our town's Google campus and ask them to find a fix for me.

Sorry @@cyclops, I always taught my kids to not go grubbing for points when questioning a call (be it in sports or negative check marks on tests). So, no points from me. It is possible that the OP is a victim of no-matter-where-you-go-there-you-are. He/she objected to some leaders' behavior on moral grounds, and now someone is objecting to his/her behavior. If the new church came with a new board president, as @@Stosh suggest that person would serve as the IH, that person could have tickled the pastor's ear in a way that put @@Cubmaster35 in an unfavorable light. Regardless of how it happened, if the OP believes theirs is the best leadership team for the boys, the best thing to do is to contact the DE and prepare to change CO's. That action alone will help clear the air about any accusations that came to the church through the BSA. Once that ball is rolling, a visit with the pastor may be in order. Christians can be a vicious, conniving lot and the pastor may have bought into false rumors or blown something out of proportion. Regardless, a cordial conversation explaining your intent to leave on good terms would be in order. Once you find a new CO, you might need to ask for a loan of equipment from the old CO. Playing nice is the only way to go.

@@Cubmaster35, call your district executive (DE) immediately Leave the pack #s with the old CO. Ask your district executive if there is CO who would be interested in supporting your pack. See if the reverse of your numbers (53?) is available. Move on quickly and cheerfully. This pretty much the advice I gave to our members of our committee when our merger resulted in a moving of COs, and they wanted the numbers to move with them. And don't be so sensitive. A minus 1 is fair retribution if @@Beavah's guess is far from the mark. Let people talk. Live for the boys' smiles. Dare the pastor to form a pack as great as yours. Ask him to, if at all possible, have the leaders run their program on on a different night so as to reach as many boys as possible. FWIW, this is why Presbyterians have the clerk of session as their institutional head. Pastors can drift in with all kinds of crazy ideas. Congregants have a better sense of the traditional needs of their community. And the two need to balance one another. However, even with that balance of power, all bets are off in denominational mergers.

Although esteeming them for the sense of dedication they convey, I have not considered service stars as representing the experience I might need in a pinch. I'm not sure there's anything I might look for on someone's uniform that would tell me that.

I didn't go to summer camp or Jambo for rank advancement purposes. Parents never asked if I earned any badge (although I did a couple every year). Dad might have asked if I'm shooting straight yet? There was a rifle waiting for me one birthday (which coincided with camp). Went to one MB pow-wow at $30 for the weekend. Weekend camps? The boys are gonna eat anyway. And trust me, if the girlfriend knows his schedule is open, his wallet will drain three times as fast! BSA forces us to add overhead by requiring adults on patrol overnights. Earning MBs costs phone calls and time. Oh, and pamphlets .... with a troop library most will circulate through about 8 boys. Service projects ... labor is the largest cost. To get it free, you're buying some quality lunches! But at that age, son #2 was treating his friends to breakfast at the house on weekends and baking cakes for birthdays during the week.

When Son #1 went to Seabase, we stayed in a hotel at Miami beach the day before and after (in case of flight delays). The good restaurants and bodegas were definitely more than 300' away!

Ideally you'll press this urgency upon yout CC and COR, and they'll be your recruiters. Advisors wind up pretty much in the moment. It's certainly a one "class" at a time gig.

Keep building your depth chart. That may mean nudging the "day" moms a little into enduring some challenges. That may also mean getting to know other crews in your area, or recruiting other women you trust. Get to know the advisors of your council/district VOA. Think back on how many times a given SM/ASM was not available for a troop overnight, perhaps one or two of those times were last minute decisions, but at least someone was there to step into the gap. Add to it: two-deep is a minimum standard. Think of scenarios where you may have to split the group (e.g. back-country contingent size limits), in those cases you need four leaders. It is just a really rotten feeling to tell a group of girls that they can't join a contingent because of leadership shortages.

So, calico, "design" is just "art" in disguise for the tech world?

@@UncleP, we have kids like these in spades. (Honestly, it feels like a full suit in a deck of cards.) As an ASM/Advisor, every bit of info helps us be supportive. This is not about "snowflake" mentality, this is about knowing a kid's disadvantage and helping him overcome it.

That sounds like a really nice depth chart. How many of your female adult leaders are back-country ready?

$urpri$e$ you? Really? Well, first, Explorers never went away. We have a couple posts here, one in a major hospital ... another in law enforcement. I'm sure that's the case elsewhere. But, there has been real money fronted by grants and foundations with the goal of startnig successful STEM programs. The bottom line is that everyone from janitor to soldier will have to be more tech savvy then ever before to reach economic goals and fend off our sworn enemies. Parents who've had to get retrained multiple times for their jobs know this, and are guiding their kids accordingly. What does scouting have to offer? Well, a broad-based ethical baseline from which to proceed. And, a culture of mobilizing youth in small groups. And, an understanding of outdoor opportunities that inspire youth. So, this is not so much a matter of BSA adopting new teaching goals as it is folks with national objectives adopting BSA to meet those goals.

That's what some Jews and Pagans noticed in Antioch,19 centuries ago, and they gave the name "Christians" to people who, up until that point simply described themselves as being "In the way" (of our Lord, of the Messiah, of the Lamb). Seems like some poor moderates think they're still in the way.

This is a fairly new requirement. (About 10 years old?) I do have problems with it because I feel it was added to serve the organization more than the boy. Be that as it may, it is now required. If I were his SM, I'd like to know if something about the program is vexing a scout. Your nephew's SM may have the best intentions, but may not be aware that his encouragement is backfiring. No need to take "friend" literally. Enemies or complete strangers will do. Maybe a fellow scout could "loan" a friend. And there's no reason he has to do it by himself. Maybe he and another scout can't talk to a couple of classmates. Maybe the patrol can set up a demonstration campsite at a school or a public park, and invite boys to come visit, then hand out a fly with meeting info.

I file all of the arguments (not wanting to sully the rank, PLs were signing off indiscriminately, poor training, etc ...) under an undeserved mistrust of youth, and a misplaced faith in adults. Every now and then I get an "EMT cert signed by my prof wouldn't amount to much." (Basically, what the Beav mentioned.) But, the response to that is "Fine, one youth instruct another test. Adults, find us some MBC's!"

Yep, this has been part of the discussion nearly as soon as the acronym was rolled out. I once joked that the phys ed folks should join the artists insist on recreation, making it STREAM.

@@Eagle94-A1, to avoid whitewashing things ... I can envision each of your four issues being problematic in youth-sign-off-only troops. Helicopter moms will do what they do. Boys who tend to slip through the cracks will find a way to continue to do so. That's not the point. If I discover one of these issues and go fix it because I'm always the guy checking books, the only result will be I will learn a dozen ways people rig the system. I'll probably then tell other adults my "you won't believe it" stories around a campfire once the boys are in bed. Nothing they didn't already know. If a boy discovers these issues, he talks to his fellow scouts (and hopefully a caring and thoughtful adult) about it. We chalk it up to experience and move on.

You misunderstand. If a PL has a hard time teaching, he's generally not gonna know it until the guys he was trying to teach demonstrate their skills to him. If indeed the PL has a hard time teaching (e.g., he's never completed the requirement himself), he can get help. If the PL's not sure the boy did well enough on the test, he can ask for clarification. ("Mr. Q are a coot and a snipe two different animals?") Then, as the PL learns through testing he becomes more confident in sign-offs. Breaking this cycle squanders leadership opportunities. There is nothing to be gained from it.