Beavah

Yah, hmmm.... Lots of stuff there @@htusa31. A bit too much to sort through, so I'll just give yeh a few thoughts to ruminate on. If they fit, great. If not, well that's great too! First, when you're buildin' or rebuildin' troop culture, yeh want to avoid transfer scouts, especially older boy transfers. Those lads are goin' to come in with 3-5 years of being part of another troop's culture, eh? In their leadership they're goin' to mostly be tryin' to duplicate their old troop. It's really hard for older boys to change. It will mess you up 9 times out of 10. Yah, yah, there's

Yah, @@JillJill, welcome! Can I ask how you feel it violated da scout oath or law? Not knowin' the lad and not having witnessed the event, I'd tend to agree with da majority, eh? I wouldn't nail a boy to the wall for this. I might tack him to the wall. Dependin'. Probably I'd just pull him aside at some point to have him think through age-appropriate foolin' around. Sometimes skits like this can teach a valuable lesson, eh? Generally speakin', the boys aren't glorifyin' drug use when they do a sketch like this. They're makin' fun of it. It's a bit of "look at me, I'm be

Yah, hmmm... For a few years now I've watched da show "Deadliest Catch" about Alaskan crab fisherman, eh? It's interestin' because they're real folks dealin' with small-team dynamics in da outdoors I suppose. In da crab fishery, it's fairly common for a boat to take on a new "greenhorn" or two at half-share for the season. Usually it takes a year or two for 'em to work up to a full share fisherman, under the watchful eye and gruff friendship of da more experienced hands. In the real world, what happens "naturally" is that new greenhorns join teams and work their way up, buildin'

Yah, trust your instincts, @@Grubdad. You know your boy better than any of us, eh? In middle school/boy scout age da people who have the most direct influence on kids shifts, eh? Elementary school it's parents who have da biggest influence, but as kids move to adolescence and teen years peers take over as da biggest part of their lives. If your instincts are that your lad will be a bit of a follower and soak up da peer influence around him, then choose da program where you think the peer influences are good ones. If your boy doesn't have a strong preference, I reckon da parental c

Yah, yeh can rack up da same sort of BSA multi-violation tickets if yeh go anywhere in da international Scoutin' community too, eh? Such things should remind us that real safety comes from knowledge and not from regulation. Besides, too many rules and both kids and adults choose not to play, eh? Or just ignore da rules. Beavah

I've heard similar or worse about Scientology, LDS, etc. from adults. The boys don't engage in this kind of 'labeling'. My example is real, not some contrivance. What are yeh talkin' about, mate? The boys all know that da FSM is a satire. That's part of the fun of the thing, especially for teenagers. We should all be able to laugh at ourselves a bit, of course, and take satire or parody for what they are. At the same time, sometimes satire can become mean-spirited and irreverent, eh? When yeh put da FSM in place of the traditional depiction of God on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, we

Yah, @@Stosh, I reckon if yeh dish it out to others yeh should be able to take it without gettin' too upset, eh? Sometimes I just find it hard to interpret what you're writin' is all. Might be a problem with my bifocals. For example: And who said it was 50 miles on open water with gear? Well if it was on a closed pond, then it was a Cub Scout trip, eh? Also makes it hard to do 50 miles. Sorry, I was referrin' to da BSA Aquatics version of open water, not the normal English definition. Yah, I blame da bifocals. Easier than blamin' my brain. Seriously, though, some o

Yah, thanks for da info @@Stosh. Context does help. Small troop startups are their own special version of fun, eh? Wonderin' why 3 out of your five scouts aren't active though. Did somethin' happen? Beavah

Yah, @@vumbi, yeh do understand that Pastafarianism really is a satire, right? Though it's become a favorite in my local Italian restaurant. It's also well enough defined, I reckon, for a lad to know what he's about. In terms of the boy you mention, my question for yeh is why did the lad think a BOR was a test in the first place, eh? Seems like his troop set him up for failure. No need to make a board into The Test in the lad's mind. I'd also wonder why the troop's program didn't afford the lad opportunities to express his faith in ways that would help him build confidence? We'

Yah, hmmm.... Yeh do realize you're contradictin' yourself, right? "The government" can't be gettin' more income tax revenues if da employer is down to a part time worker and a temp. Let me make a different prediction, eh? We'll see a moderate drop in da use of overtime and a mild increase in employment. McDonald's will still need to have a manager on duty, eh? To get reliable manager they'll still need to offer full-time employment. Businesses will adjust, and the world will go on. Now, I reckon yeh can put on a Libertarian hat and pretend that anything that protects wo

Nah, I'm inquiring into da nature and purposes of a lad's choices, eh? I enjoy da smart-alecks. At least they're thinkin' and tryin' out different ways of acting and behaving on their own. What would be unfair to the lad as a caring adult is not to respond, eh? The lad is askin' for a response and feedback and discussion. Why would yeh pass up an opportunity to engage with a boy who is one of our best and brightest on a matter that he finds interestin' and wants to engage in? Of course I also want to see if he can keep a straight face while explainin' how the decline of pi

Nah, sadly they have been eliminatin' some of the words too, eh? Bill's Patrol Method assumed da mixed-age, neighborhood gang patrol, and we muddled that all up with da New Scout Patrol and Venture Patrols in the 90s. As @@Stosh points out, if da troop is really made up of patrols then yeh plan activities at the patrol level and coordinate among patrol leaders. Instead our materials suggest planning events at the troop level led by an SPL elected by da whole troop. So that's what almost everybody does, eh? From my perspective Patrol Method is da hardest thing for adults to grok in t

Yah, hmmm... My boys do this kind of activity as a NSP, This is why they have a TG to guide them through the process of getting it done. Yes. I have had the NSP patrol do 50 miles on a canoe trip they planned. @@Stosh, can yeh explain this a bit? How do yeh do that in light of da BSA's Safety Afloat/Aquatic Supervision requirements I'm wonderin'? Around these parts, at least a third of da new lads aren't swimmers yet, and few are competent paddlers let alone strong enough for a 50-mile open water paddle with gear, eh? Are yeh supplementin' with a lot of adult support? D

Yah, hmmm... I think from what yeh write that your son's current troop isn't a good fit for you. It's not clear whether or not it's a good fit for your son, but given how involved yeh want to be that might not matter, eh? Troops need to be a good fit for parents, too, since we're trustin' our kids to them. Seems like yeh don't trust da current troop, so I reckon that's sayin' all yeh need to know, eh? I try not to judge from afar when I can avoid it. I've seen parents who are really strict with their boys get their knickers in a twist over what can be fairly ordinary behavior by

Which would be a fun smart-aleck answer that would lead da conversation in another direction.

Yah, there are as many ways of doin' things as there are troops I expect. There's also a very different dynamic with mixed-age patrols and a PLC and same-age patrols and a PLC. In troops with mixed age patrols and a PLC, generally speakin' there are patrol trips and there are some troop trips that they do together. Sometimes da PLC sets aside time for patrol trips, sometimes patrols just add 'em on themselves. Annual planning meetings often have all da patrols contribute ideas and desires and almost always there's consensus, eh? Lots of boys like da same things in common - adventure

Yah, hmmm... I reckon I'm just gettin' a bit befuddled by all your posts about your troop(s), @@Stosh. Do yeh mind providin' a quick summary so we understand da context when you're talkin' about 'em? Somethin' like Troop A, 35 boys, 5 patrols, 1998-2002, ran by troop method with everyone cooking together, I was the ASM in charge of new scouts. Troop B, 2004-2009, I started this troop as Scoutmaster, it grew from 5 crossover boys to 24 boys in five years, 3 patrols, strict StoshScouts patrol method. This was the troop in da old Scouter.com posts where da committee removed me a

Yah, hmmm... This seems to be gettin' more frequent as da BSA shrinks and da pros get squeezed. We've had some bad cases of SEs removing volunteers who were whistleblowers on da SE's fraud and mismanagement. Da SE is supposed to conduct an investigation before takin' any action. What's your current position in Scouting? Are you a council/district volunteer or a unit volunteer? If you're da former, the SE can simply choose not to renew your membership in the same way a COR can choose not to renew the membership of a unit leader. That's different than being "removed from Scouting

Yah, hmmm.... My experience pretty much aligns with @@Hedgehog, eh? And @@Eagledad and some of da others. I see a lot of different troops, but the ones that IMHO do the best Scoutin' and have da best outcomes for kids are the mixed-age patrol troops where real patrol method of older boys leadin' younger boys has become part of da culture. That was da BSA model for patrols for most of its history, eh? Neighborhood gangs, with older gang leaders and middle gang members and younger gang inductees. Mixed-age was Green Bar Bill's method. Boys gain in responsibility and leadership with

Yah, hmmmm. I reckon da problem we have, @@TAHAWK, is the one yeh describe, eh? National's policies and materials really conflict with each other, and departed from Bill Hillcourt a generation ago. So when we're talkin' about "followin' the Program", I'm never really sure which BSA Program a fellow is talkin' about. It doesn't really bother me as much as it does some folks, eh? I don't believe in magical one-size-fits-all Programs. I reckon I've never seen a scoutin' unit that really "followed the program" entirely, eh? But I've seen lots of great scout units doin' fine things

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Nah, you're mixin' things up again, eh? What you're talkin' about here isn't economic growth, it's economic growth per capita. Absorbin' an unskilled or impoverished workforce can lead to decline in GDP per capita, eh? For example when da former West Germany absorbed East Germany. Those East Germans were quite a burden to the economy. That's because da productivity of East Germany was lower, eh? However, the total GDP of da combined Germany was still increased, eh? Germany grew economically, just not as fast as its population grew. Of course in da longer run, as East German

Yah, that would be from our elected representatives, eh? Representin' da will of the People, which is what we mean by "government" in these United States. Really, though, it reflected da fact that 1920s automation led to overproduction, unemployment, and then deflation, eh? Not inflation. That's just da product of rapid productivity increases. As more and more automation hits, we're goin' to see da same effect. For example, as self-drivin' vehicles take off in the next 10 years, they can easily put 4 million people in da transportation and logistics industry out of work. Cab drive

Yah, read what yeh wrote again, slowly. "People to feed and clothe and take care of." In other words, increased demand for food and clothing and housing and consumer products and and and... Or, if yeh prefer a more supply-side approach, more people means more available workers producin' more goods and services. In short, every reputable economist from every school of thought on economics would argue that economic growth depends on population and productivity. They just might disagree on da mechanism. Da upshot is that this Department of Labor move is just an inflation correcti

Yah, hmmm.... Perhaps some explanation is in order for da non-paddlers, eh? A scheduled release on a dam-fed river is often when it becomes whitewater (and fun). In this case, da outfitter might have canceled if there was not a release from the dam, because it would have become an easy run to do in canoes rather than somethin' yeh want to take big rubber rafts on. Sometimes, rivers become too shallow or more dangerous without a dam release. This river like many others gets really busy when there are scheduled releases, eh? Lots and lots of boats out. Havin' one fellow get kille