Chisos

I agree that the way T-2-1 requirements are written is exceptionally wordy.  Honestly, I liked how those ranks were done in the 70's and 80's (skill awards, and a couple of months of tenure for each rank).

Maybe instead of NA regalia, the OA comes up with our own.  Perhaps, "ceremonial sashes" that are only worn during ceremonies or something like that.

49 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said:

It's nice to know that he's reading our humble little forum.

 

True.  Maybe little, but with a lot of folks with a lot of knowledge that really care. (even if we don't always agree).

35 minutes ago, EmberMike said:

It also sounds like Surbaugh is trying to come out of this without anyone disliking him. That's impossible. He needs to decide what's important and make bold decisions to get there. If that's co-ed scouting, then do it. If he maybe does think this was a mistake and wants to back off of it, then do that. He eneds to stop with the "let's make everyone happy" idea, though. 

 

This.  Absolutely.  A bit of decisive leadership would be refreshing.

Probably a case by case basis...where are his friends?

We don't do MB meetings, but sometimes there may be some overlap with the monthly theme.  So if some boys want to work on a badge they could.  For example we could be working on rope skills, and some boys may start on Pioneering.  But there would still be extra stuff for them to do--the goal of hte meeting was the skill, not the MB signoff.

Like some others have said we'll sometimes set up a MB session if there is interest, but at a different time.

@sst3rd, I'm a chapter adviser and have heard nothing along these lines. (Though, I'm in a small Lodge, and pretty much any ceremonies we do are at the lodge level).

@Stosh...when the University where I work awards honorary doctorates, it's usually a Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD), not a PhD.  When we advertise for faculty, we specify an earned doctorate in an appropriate field...anyone without an earned doctorate, who was given an honorary one and then insisted on being called "Doctor" would get laughed at for sure.

It's your call.  Personally, I prefer to wear the "standard" CSP, and save the other for collecting or what not.

I wouldn't wear a "special" CSP for something I didn't participate in, though.

The other one we called off recently was a canoe trip...the river was flooding, and after the forest rangers said "yeah, the high water has all the water moccasins out..."

That could wait a few weeks.

If you see these, it's time to cancel!  (at least for those of us on the coast...)

https://icons.wxug.com/data/wximagenew/b/brucetopher/1-awesome.jpg

Agreed with the replies above about getting the scouts in on more of the planning.  I "ran" our district camporee recently, and we had a pre-camporee "SPL meeting" about 3 weeks out to plan some stuff out.  That seemed to work pretty well.

Maybe have a "service Troop" tasked with running the events.  They don't compete so they don't win anything, but maybe recruit a couple of supporting adults to cook and clean for them (or at least make them a cobbler or two.)  Or get the OA or a Venturing Crew to run the events.

Also, maybe throw in a couple of silly or just for fun events.  Most things on skills, but some fun events or free time is also good.

    

 

Then, at the COH last night we were talking about how all scouts that aged out have earned eagle, then the new scouts say “Guess I’m breaking itâ€, so they have no motivation either. But, they want to earn it so it’s a big cluster of issues.

 

They like the activities and camping better and doesn’t want to do the MBs, advancing, etc. (who doesn’t?)

You may just have a batch of scouts for whom advancement isn't important.  We've got a few.

Or, at some point, one of them will start advancing, and the others won't want to be left behind.  We've had a few do that--stay scout or tenderfoot for a couple of years, but then when they saw their friends getting to star or life, decided it was time to get moving and are doing well now.

Yes, if we go to a district or council camporee, that is our campout for the month.

The biggest problem I see with incoming webelos is a lack of understanding teamwork. They each have a different job to do and they need to do it for the patrol to function on its own. The result is everyone trying to do the same thing at the same time. That results in scouts arguing over who gets to do this, whatever this is, and nobody doing that, or the other. If if you've ever seen 6 year olds playing soccer everyone wants to kick the ball and nobody wants to spread out.

 

This.  This is probably the biggest issue with the crossovers as the come in...getting them to work as a team.

I would urge caution on using that math. The BSA quote says “87% expressed INTEREST in a program LIKE†Boy Scouts.

 

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Exactly.  It will be interesting to see how many of those "interested parents" translate into "registered youth."  I know lots of "interested parents" right now, whose sons aren't in scouts, because of a variety of different (generally valid) reasons.

  or helping them with orienteering when the couple can't find their way home and gps doesn't work.

Ha!  That would be a good one!

Actually that could be a good series of commercials for BSA...

GPS breaks, scout shows how to use map and compass.

Power goes out in a snowstorm, scout shows how to make a fire

Clean water not available, scout shows how to purify drinking water.

Stuff like that.

There are chupacabras all over South Texas...

My son was on staff at council summer camp, they designated levels for leaders (yes Helicopter leaders) and parents in the camp

 

- Simple over involved oversight: Helicopter

- More involved, checking on scout, asking questions on their behalf: Blackhawk

- Even more involved, direct involvement during classes, scout is two steps behind: Chinook

- Highest level, it's all about their scout, involves Camp Director in any perceived slight: Sea Stallion

 

You could almost hear their eyes roll when one of these leaders/parents would take up residence in a program area

Camp should have a "Stinger Award" for the best takedown (or, at least, redirection) of one of these!

I don't know about "anger" and "animosity" but I can tell you that the average college or university administrator is probably at least as "fed up" with "helicopter parents" as some Scout leaders are.

Yup.  College faculty, too.  Snowflake Student has one issue, complaint, whatever...it's not talk to the professor about it, it is now head straight to the Dean (or higher!)

Agree with @@sst3rd, sounds like you aren't doing anything wrong.  My take--you said it's a bunch of younger scouts...how young?  Are they used to being led by someone other than an adult?

From what I've observed over the past few years in our troop, that can often be one of the biggest challenges for the SPL and PL's...getting the newest scouts to recognize other scouts as the leaders rather than an adult.  They mostly don't get that anywhere else, so that transition can take a while.  (sometimes, the parents have trouble with the transition too).

Yup--I see it to.  Something's dividing by zero somewhere...

I'm not saying we're planning to go out an intentionally "break the rules".  But what do you do when you're a small pack, you *want* to include girls, but only one or two show up for a given den?  Tell them no?  What if you get enough girls for a girls-only Wolf den, but not for a girls-only Bear den?  Tell the 2nd grade girls they can do Cub Scouts, but tell the 3rd grade ones they can't?

I've got a least a couple of families that have stated interested in their daughters being involved in cub scouts.  But unless there's some flexibility in implementation to be able to respond to a local pack's membership and leadership numbers, and some clarity as to what we're supposed to do at the Boy Scout level, I"m leaning to sticking with boys only.

Background:  We have three units with two CO's that work together.  I'm CC and COR for the Troop, and COR for the Crew.  The Pack is a different CO.

Anyway, we're not sure what to do yet.  And the reason for that is the question about "what happens" at the middle school level.  My concern is going co-ed with the Pack (which I really don't think will be that difficult), but then not liking the way the middle-school-girl program develops (or not having the adult leadership to implement it).

I don't know how it will all shake out.  But my blurry crystal ball says that when the dust settles, we'll have:

Co-ed Cub Scout dens, from Lions to Bear;

Separate Webelos Dens, 4th and 5th grade (so a 2-year den, one for boys and one for girls);

A co-ed Troop, that's two troops on paper, with single-sex patrols;

A co-ed Venturing crew

But, who knows.  For better or worse, we live in interesting times.

Our CO's also host some GS troops.  I'm not sure where they all stand on this; some may wish to keep with what they're doing, others may want to go BSA.  Nobody's said they can't do both.

I was thinking that maybe extra adults volunteer to help the camp staff at stations, kitchen, or something helpful to the camp.  Right now we have almost a 2:1 ratio of scouts to adults wanting to go.  That seems like a lot to me.

Yeah, we'll probably have about 2.5:1 ratio (20 to 8 or so, +/-).  I think it really depends on the adults you get.  If its ones that want to helicopter over their kids its a problem.  But, there's adults that just like to camp.  For them, just find something to do.  We usually set it up to so that an a couple of adults hang around the campsite for the day, but for the the others, set them up for training sessions, service projects, may be lead a hike or something, ask the camp staff where they can help out.  And, be sure that all adults attending summer camp are current on their "Nap on Safely" training.