SSScout

Twenty three pages of angst. What does that say about the topic and the commentators?

I concur with the previous comments. 1) Reflect on what might have triggered such a response. Over the phone and not in person? Interesting.... 2) Reflect on the Scout Promise and Law. Those are upon which Scout Leaders should base their behavior . 3) Speak (as recommended) in person with the Committee Chair and the Charter Organization Representative. Your sponsoring Charter Organization ( the church or school or club that sponsors your Cub Pack) is supposed to be represented by the COR to the Scout world. Many CORs are merely "signers" on the paperwork, but you have a right to require their participation here. The Committee Chair , with the Committee, helps decide the activities of the Pack that the Cubmaster leads. The CCh needs to hear of this event post haste. Next in the line of responsibility for the Cub Pack is the Institution Head, or as mentioned above, the Executive Officer. This might be the club president, or the church Head Pastor, or the Fire Department Chief, who ever heads the Charter Organization. They will want to hear of your travail. 4) Bullying? I would consider it so. Certainly not the action of a "reasonable" adult Scout Leader. Reflect on how these folks act toward your Cubs. Is there another problem ? 5) Go on line and find the District Leadership. You may know your Unit Commissioner, or not, but you can find the name and contact your District Commissioner, who would be the next resource to contact about this event. 6) Keep notes. Write down when and what was said by whom. Such notes may come in handy later. 7) Try to remember, "it's for the kids".

Lots of issues here. If the church is dissolved, who does your Troop really belong to? DE and Council need to be advised and consulted. In my home Troop's case, whoever shows up (except for SM and ASMs, ) to the Committee meeting ARE the committee. Registered? How do you gauge that? If you would support the Troop, you show up. Let the owner take care of his own boat. Thank him for his "support of Scouting" with a plaque and testimonial dinner. $4,000. will buy at least 5 ABS canoes and needed gear. Paddles, PFDs, waterproofs, rope, cartop racks, and MAYBE even a rack and shed to store things in and on. The start of a really good canoeing program and a "specialist" Troop... You might become famous in your area ! The Scouts want to go boating, let'm propel themselves. Canoeing MB is a fun thing. What rivers and lakes are nearby?

When I received Surbaugh's letter (email), it reminded me of one of my favorite Monty Python skits. We see two pilots in the cockpit of their airliner, obviously bored on a long flight. One says, " here we go" and he picks up the microphone for the PA system. He says, "Good morning, this is your captain speaking. There is absolutely no cause for alarm". and hangs up the mike. ???!!! So captain Surbaugh assures us there is no cause for alarm. I feel the BSA has a 'lotta 'splainin' " to do, to use another media reference some of us older folks may recognize. It is sad he has inherited such a bag of expensive worms. "All Scouting is local" may have to be the mantra we live by . Problems: Unattended sexual abuse scandals. Overly paid folks who might not have been really devoted to the "idea" of Scouting. Inside folks that did not really know what the ideals of the Scout Promise and Law entailed as applied to "REAL LIFE". The GSUSA set the scene by not allowing fathers to help their daughters be Girl Scouts. The GSUSA not promoting "outdoor adventure" in addition to "indoor leadership" for their Scouts. BSA trying to adjust the "program" to match the new kids on the block, rather than staying to what they were good at. Some faiths not agreeing with the idea of true equality among humans. Societal attitudes changing. I know I have left some things out, but so long as we can provide kids with guidance "on the trail", I think Scouting, if not the BSA and GSUSA and the World Organization of the Scouting Movement as we now see it, will evolve and be there for the future.

There ya go. A non-topic Topic, if I ever saw one. Personally, I need all the blessing I can get, I do not differentiate from whence they come. 😊 Some years ago, I was moved to seek and was approved as a Scout Chaplain to the Nat Jam in 2005. The title stuck, and I have been trying to explain Scout religiosity ever since. I find that if one does not come across as "my way is the only possible way", people can get along nicely. Every faith I have come across has somewhere in it's precepts the idea that THIS is the best way to the godhead. And it seems to be true for those people. As the carney barker says, ya pays yer money and ya takes yer cherce. Our faith is dependent on three things: First, Our upbringing, who our parents/family (if we had any to claim) were, what they taught and espoused and exampled ((I tell new parents it is their DUTY and RESPONSIBILTY to give their kids something to either claim as their own or reject outright)) . After that, second, our own experience and search, should we do any.... and third, our revelationary experience, our "vision" or "voice" or metaphoric "tap on the shoulder". By these three things , our faith is formed. Duty to God? If there is one.... or many?... When I got hip high deep into Scouting, I offered my experience to the IOLS leader in our District. We are good friends now. I soon realized, IOLS had NO discussion included about "Reverent", so I offered to do one, and have been for the last, (?) ten years. Here is the outline I now hand out. I have had good comments from my Christian, Jewish and Islamic Scouters. https://www.dropbox.com/s/76zk9ri7glgu9gt/ScoutsOwnDutytoGod.docx?dl=0 Here we are in the best, possibly the most successful democracy humanity has created, and we pray about a "King of Kings". Is there any irony in that? Lord? lower case lord? father? Mother? See you on the trail.

Yes, sometimes we have to be reminded that "God ain't done with me yet". Scoutson worked hard to buy the truck of his dreams, a nice 1996 4wd F250. Cleaned it up, touched up the paint, daily driver to school and work. He set off to school (junior college) one late March morning, met the last patch of ice on the road, touched the guard rail and another on coming truck, and flipped and rolled thru all three axis, landed on it's wheels, not two miles from home. He called us cell phone and by the time mom and I got there, he was sitting on the side of the road being tended by the EMTs, as we watched a police car slip on the same ice patch and slam into the same guard rail. Truck was crushed, totaled, glass all broken out, not a single piece of sheet metal unaffected. The other truck went off the road, stayed right side up and that driver also walked away... Scoutson had a badly bruised knee. How he came out of the wreck so unaffected, no one can say. There were no other witnesses. At the hospital, Scoutson and mom and dad agreed there was more than a seatbelt at work. He said he "woke up" outside his truck, does not remember how he got out. Both doors were smashed and not easily openable. Yes, we prayed alittle more that week.

Transferring this worthy question to the Faith and Chaplaincy Forum.... oh, wait....

SCOUTS. Five types of SCOUT in the BSA : CUB, . . . . . , Venture, Explorer, Sea,,,,, The problem is that second classification. What to call the female Tenderfoot? THAT is the problem, to my mind. I can name a female Wolf or Bear Cub, I can name a female Venturererer, but how to refer to a young lady First Class... ?

John-in KC, good to see you around again. Ideally, WB is supposed to MODEL the Patrol Method (did BP really use that term?). As a Scout Leader and Sub Teacher I continue to be surprised and disappointed when I see kids that have to be practically knocked up side the head to work together and plan and make decisions AS A PATROL..... Most of our kids seem to be unable to think for themselves in the lower and middle grades. They have been so browbeat into WAITING for instruction, to be told what to do.... The idea of a Scout deciding , with his/her buds to go somewhere, do something as a team is foreign to them. WB should, if it doesn't usually, encourage the adult leader to permit the Scout to think and make mistakes (and deal with the results) themselves.

Absolutely, as he continues as a DC, one would hope he gains experience and skill. Same Cubs? As they move up, he moves with them? What better recruiting example. AND... encourage him to serve as a "Visual Aid" 😉 for the DC training in your area....

Check in with your District. Your experience would be very welcomed in several areas, I am sure. Some Ideas: ** Eagle Coordinator. EBoR organizer and fact checker. Very appreciated fellow. ** Training. IOLS, NYLT, BALOO... many possibilities for your years of Being There, and Doing It.... ** Commissioner. Different types, as a Commisher, you can do almost anything you think needs to be done. ** Program Committee. These folks organize the Camporees and Webelos Weekends and such. You could even invent something new, like one of my new Scouter friends. He developed a "Scouteree" as a recruiting event. Invite the public, let'm tie knots, climb walls, fold flags, etc. ** First Assistant Everything Else.... You name it, they will probably let you do it... See you on the trail ?

I share the experience as a single father. My daughter wanted , at first, to join GS, so I found the local GSTroop was led by the PTA president. I was not welcomed and it was just as well, because daughter then told me she didn't want to join the "cookies and fashion" troop. Later, when I was a Cub master for my Scoutson's Pack, we thought, let's do a joint recruiting, rent out the school gym with the local GSTroop. Brownies and Cubs, natural. The local GSTroop leader was the PTA president (!) and when we asked, she said (quote) "oh no, we have enough Girl Scouts, we don't want any more." I thought that was bizarre, but found out it was not so strange to hear that the GS LIMITED their membership !

For some reason, I forget why, perhaps it was a "remembrance "day of some sort, in my junior year high school English class, the topic of the Holocaust came up. After some back and forth in the class, one of my classmates spoke up and said "you know, all that stuff is made up, don't you? It's just a fable made up by Zionists." (what he said!). I had a feeling he was trumpeting what he heard from his dad... Our teacher, Mr. Emlich, got very quiet, sat down on the edge of his desk and starting telling the story of how he in his army unit had entered Buchenwald. What he saw, what his unit did. The rest of the hour was Mr. Emlich quietly keeping his composure, talking. He mentioned (I remember this, after all these years, ) how some folks have a need to explain things so the "facts" better match what their "opinions" are, regardless. The kid that made the comment was not quite as well respected after that. I was never in his crowd, anyway.

Many camps as a young boy..... . My folks were all in favor of my independence (until I went off to college, then mom cried). Mast Cove Camp, outside of Portland Maine. Stanwood Cobb was the owner/director. Salt water sails and swims. Gimp craft work. The Nature Camp, outside of somewhere in southern Virginia, I think GW Forest, perhaps. 4am bird walks. Fern ID. Formal theatrics. Camp Theodore Roosevelt , BSA, off Calvert Cliffs, the Chesapeake Bay. Sea Nettles. Astronomy.... "The Property" (named Camp Freedom), summer camp organized by my Troop parents on somebody's uncle's cousin's "property", Germantown MD. Long dead American Chestnut for fire wood cooking. Spring water. Camp Wilson, BSA, Fairfax County VA (I think) . Pine woods , sandy and hot. Broad Creek, BSA, north of Baltimore MD. Hemlock dark woods. Very few bad times.....

THERE ! You SEE !!!

Please refer to my previous entry. The Scout's Troop must be the source of most, if not all the Scout's Scouting, else why have a Troop? National sets requirements, standards of operations, but the Troop, it's Scouts and adult leaders are where the Scout grows up, where he (now she ?) must learn How To Be A Scout. Who does the Scout look to for guidance and "passing of rank"? Not some strange (tho friendly and gracious ?) people he may never meet again. The last thing before being awarded any rank is normally the Troop's BoR. How is this different? Same for Eagle. The Troop's BoR is important and a natural thing to expect. Eagle is a special thing, unique, a final threshold to pass. The District/Council Eagle BoR is perhaps the last formal requirement and the last thing a Scout will ever have to pass/endure/learn from. For many Scouts, it is an "age out" event. The Scout will probably not do anything like it again, before they apply to college, or trade school, or that BIG job.... A practice BoR? Every BoR preceeding should have been a "practice" BoR.

" "Twas in the restaurant where they first met.... Romeo and Juliette. Twas where they first went into debt, for Rome owed, what Juli et ! ""

Not "required" but " expected". That's how they get folks to staff the boards....😉

So I guess it isn't time... Oh well, on to other things...

HAA ! "It's not like.... Signing away years of your life..." Only one hour a week.... Ha. If Scouting gets ya, it gets ya. Wood Badge not withstanding.

There have been several threads of late that have wandered off into the murky area of religion and belief and faith. Again, I would like to ask, invite discussion, about establishing a separate Forum on "Faith and Chaplaincy". There are facebook pages on such, I feel this is a good area to include here, thus allowing for diversions of topic from fundraising, difficult leaders, etc. What say ye, member Scouters and Moderator Folks ?

"Patience is defined as tieing the hammock leads to a pair of Palms and waiting for them to "grow up". " Or ignorance.....

Oh good. I like it when we have entries in the "Faith and Chaplaincy" forum. Oh, wait....

All the world’s a trail, And all the boys and girls merely hikers; They have their exits and their entrances, And one Scout in their time plays many parts, Their acts being seven ages. At first, the Tenderfoot, Huffing and aching in the Patrol Leader’s gaze. Then the willing Second Class, with his backpack And shining new boots, creeping like snail Willingly to camp. And then the First Class, Working like journeyman, with a woeful ballad Made to his buddy’s ’ cookset. Then a Star Scout, Full of fun tales and dirty like the worker, Jealous in honor, sudden and quick to help, Seeking the bubble reputation Even in the campfire’s smoke. And then the Life Scout, In fair proud and downlooking to the Tenderfoot, With eyes severe and mien of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances; And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the sage and sought after , With spectacles on nose and pouch on side; His youthful face, well shaved, a world too wide For his Eagle earned, and his big manly voice, Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all, That ends this strange eventful history, Is Scout Leader, signed and devoted he, Sans time, sans money, sans gear, sans everything but Scouts to inspire.

Oldscout and Latinscot: Points well taken. It has been a while since the last BoR , either Troop or District Ebor I sat in on. My home Troop always held that the Troop had the right to pass their judgment on the Scout's progress before passing on to the District BoR. Might save some more serious embarrassment/trouble later. In any event , the Troop Adv Chair always helped review the Scout's records before Council was asked to vet them. Our Troop always sat the Scout down with the Troop Committee to ask about their Project Proposal. Being a small Troop, the Committee were the defacto advisors and old timers. Seemed to work. Same idea with the Troop BoR. It was not meant as a "practice" District EBoR, only our own congratulatory review.