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Tampa Turtle

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Everything posted by Tampa Turtle

  1. Tampa Turtle
    There are different Troop cultures in different Troops sometimes it is easier to find the Troop that is 'doing things right' in your eyes, shake the dust off your sandals in the old Troop, and go where you are wanted. I am all for fighting the good fight but be aware time is of the essence when you have a kid in scouting.
  2. Tampa Turtle
    Our CE on the 'Family Scouting' announcement: Q. Will girls have to meet the same requirement to achieve Eagle Scout? Yes. Our goal is for young women to aspire to and achieve the Eagle Scout rank by meeting the same criteria and achievements as young men.
  3. Tampa Turtle
    If they bend the rules to accommodate the first girl there is going to be a lot of screaming and yelling from our Troop's Scouts and Scout parents about how we and BSA have been making THEM jump through all these hoops without exception. How will they react? I think a few may quit in discuss but more likely adults will relent and grease the skids for those boys remaining. She may have been doing the same things but she was not a legal scout, sorry. My son#2 just aged out and wants to continue being a Boy Scout, not an adult leader, not a venturer, but the rules say 18 and out. Awarding t
  4. Tampa Turtle
    My wife loved red when she was a younger lass. Caused quite a scene in a church service one time LOL. I guess the pictures are real, our Council pushed them out as an FYI. Also one with an all girl Cub Scout Den --apparently it must be a staged photo for some future BSA material. Folks observed they were saluting the flag incorrectly so that will need to be fixed prior to publication. I'd link to it if I could figure it out. Please note: it included the following National photo shoot for the new Cub Scout handbooks ! For updated information send questions to Family.Program@scou
  5. Tampa Turtle
    Stosh, if the recent actions of National has shown anything it is not really 'my' program it is their game and rules and they can change it when they want to. But yes the scouts (and it tends to be a subset) are my scouts. There still some boys I might want to call up for lunch just for a check in, or call over if I see them around town. And there are the ones who you never really considered that you connected with who walk up to you in public and shake your hand (or even hug you) and tell you the really appreciated it you (or give a belated apology for being extra-difficult). THAT is getting
  6. Tampa Turtle
    I agree. On the flip side when they go bad you feel a responsibility in that maybe you missed something. And when they pass you grieve deeply. I feel much more bonded to my Boy Scouts then the hundred different Cub Scouts I saw in my leadership there. I think because I saw them develop from children to men and I had so many shared experiences with individuals in the field where we shared joys and adversity and we saw each other at our best and less than ideal.
  7. Tampa Turtle
    She was a MBC but did not feel welcome for the 1st two years. She helped out at some fund raisers - the "all hands on deck" ones. She was not interested in camping or doing advancement. She was much more sympathetic to my stories after dealing with the scouts! In the last year when the Scouts and Scouters are away on a big trip or Summer Camp the ladies plan a ladies poker night or party. I think it is a good sign.
  8. Tampa Turtle
    As the new parent briefer I used to have a "Everyone Must Do Something' Speech as the first shot across the bow at the 1st meeting. The lazy smart ones start looking around for the easy to stuff do and we got a few more Merit Badge Counselors that way. A few parents were perfectly willing to drive scouts a few hours if they didn't have to stay over night --every little bit helps, right. We always had a list of suggested jobs, understudies, etc etc. ASM's were always a more controlled class --you had to make some commitments to break in there. A few Dad's were all gung ho until they had to WEAR
  9. Tampa Turtle
    Ya'know despite all their groovy new ideas one reason the Old Guard might view the New Volunteers with a jaundiced eye is the turn over in new leaders; a lot more is proposed than followed up with....
  10. Tampa Turtle
    Not nerdy at all. It is a fascinating experience in human organizational dynamics!
  11. Tampa Turtle
    It took me awhile to break in; it took much longer for my wife. Sometimes it is just simple turf issues that I have seen again and again at lots of organizations (school, PTA, Church). Another is that it takes a long time to develop a good Troop culture and it can easily be undermined by a well meaning new parent; I was that parent! Luckily I was shunted off for some other work for a while. But there is a "tyranny of those who show up and do the work"; the ones who show up day in and day out eventually grow their influence. But yeah we once had a guy who loved cook for masses of people an
  12. Tampa Turtle
    They program has a way of sucking you in. You can get attached to some of the lads and really want to be there for them though they may not really know it.
  13. Tampa Turtle
    Luckily it is not a potential co-ed Troop; if all this Summer Camp dating going on we might want to tack on an additional $1 condom fee for the Troop stash. Be Prepared and all. (BS4G motto:Be Prepared. For. That)
  14. Tampa Turtle
    I give this one Two Snarks!
  15. Tampa Turtle
    Really, the cub one? My boys were cubs then and they had the ones with the Wolf on it. Maybe it was old stock.
  16. Tampa Turtle
    Obviously the folks on this forum must get a lot of scouting as an adult Scouter to stay in despite all the sturm und drang in modern scouting. I have been thinking about this lately and I was wondering: why do you really do it? What is the pull of scouting to an adult over other pursuits? Just curious. ( I put this topic in 'Issues" rather than 'Program; since it is more of a philosophical thread.
  17. Tampa Turtle
    Eagle 94-A1 you are dead on every point. I am seeing the leadership problem now in my Troop: (1) The old hand Scouters are throttling back their participation because of uncertainty and disapproval -backing off rather than completely walking away. . While they are not at every meeting these folks (which includes some women) are the ones that, since their boys are gone, have more patience with the odd boys, pass on Troop traditions, and seem to know the best about field and wood craft. I do not know if they will come back and engage more because they just love scouting too much or will lat
  18. Tampa Turtle
    I used to use that joke with the New Parents on BSA YPT policy (I am the "New Parents" ASM many years). Was a quick way to figure out who was a little more uptight that the others. But I was told by the SM it was a little too edgy.
  19. Tampa Turtle
    A Coffee Mug.
  20. Tampa Turtle
    The old ones were pretty cool. I remember that they would have stories about Scouts camping out and wolf packs and the like. Exciting stuff. I used to read them faithfully as a cub scout drooling over when I could be a scout. Then there was a big switch around the 1970's--I guess this was the era of the new 'Urban Scouting' and the articles changed--longer thought pieces, some social justice stuff, less camping. My mom was surprised when I asked her to stop renewing the subscription. I think she got me 'True Magazine' though she thought it got a little racy -- it had "I survived a savage wolf
  21. Tampa Turtle
    Belt looks different. I don't know how girls gonna like wearing suck baggy switchback pants. As I have said the move from the Iconic Yellow for Wolfs is a style blunder but National, long ago, stopped caring about tradition except as a "brand" (CE uses that term a lot -- I guess my Scouts are 'products' too. Oh well, time to TRY to move on, I can only keep so much moral outrage on so many things going so long.
  22. Tampa Turtle
    I never saw the OA Brotherhood stipend promised me either. Actually the Senate Appropriations Committee (Mrs Turtle) told me that if I cut back as leader I could easily save about $500 a year which might be better put toward the occasional date night.
  23. Tampa Turtle
    Actually Flagg has another point (I am tiring of agreeing with him). The adult leadership in our Troop is doing so many things now that just the proposal of doing anything much extra or different elicited responses of 'I'm not doing anything different', 'I'm not doing any special training', 'If it takes anymore leaders someone else can do it', and 'One more thing I am out of here'. Some may just go into scouting semi-retirement, ya know showing up for the occasional meeting, maybe showing some lashes, but not really helping guide the youth who lead it. We still have a mess at our CO a Met
  24. Tampa Turtle
    I am REALLY outraged that while adding girls to my Troop will be an increase of genders by 100%, the 2018-2019 contract for ASM's only has a 50% pay bump.
  25. Tampa Turtle
    YPT tip #4: Don't touch the scouts, even the sexy ones.
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