WisconsinMomma

I think since we have two troops in the same community, it makes great sense to merge rather than have two distinct troops.  I wonder if we should plan in advance for next school year to be the last year of our Troop and then dissolve/merge with the neighbor troop.  This would give all the current Life Scouts another year to finish Eagle with this troop should they want it.

The issue though is the trailer and all the money.  I am sure we can find people to take them, it's just -- what is the right way to to do this?  The chartered org technically would get it all.  Can troops disburse their treasury otherwise, like donate to Council, or the other troop in the area? 

My husband talked about placeholder registrations to hold the Troop for the large Wolf pack coming up but it is unclear how may youth would stay into scouting and you need adult leaders most of all.  I think he is nervous about the "old guard" from 3+ years ago showing up and making a stink, but they've left.  In my view, it's time to move on. 

Backround: Our troop is down to one patrol, figure 10 scouts in the troop.

We have key leadership positions filled.  Three scouts will age out this year.  

The next year, three more scouts will age out.

Then two

Then two are left.

We are not anticipating any new scouts joining from Cubs for the next two years.  There is a large Wolf den in Cubs.  

My husband is the Scoutmaster.  He says he will remain Scoutmaster for the next three yeas until our youngest scout gets Eagle in this troop.

Frankly, I don't know if my youngest son wants to eagle in this troop, or eagle at all. He is interested in Sea Scouts.

My husband has been in tears last week because our 17 year old wants to quit and is thinking of not finishing Eagle.  

I am Assistant Scoutmaster but my involvement is very low, except for going to meetings and camp outs to be the extra set of hands.  I don't do very much. I am criticized for not doing much (by my spouse) but also do not want to get in the way. I did a lot in Cub scouts.  

I see no future for this troop. There is a neighboring troop in our school district who was once very low numbers but has recently gotten a lot of new scouts and grown. I personally think our troop should disband and join the other troop.... however....

There is a lot of stuff and a lot of money -- a fully stocked Troop trailer and about $11k in the bank.  In theory this would all be given to the chartered org (or spent down before disbanding?)

Has anyone disbanded a Troop?

Not that my husband sees this, I think he wants to grind it out to the end but frankly being Scoutmaster is a burden on him and I think he is getting bitter or has been for a while. He feels like he is doing "all the work".  We have three supporting adults who do committe chair, plan outings and advancement who are supporting him in those areas.

The scouts are all older but there are no young scouts for them to lead and teach, and frankly for them to be role models for.  I think this is leading our older scouts to goof off more.  

That's not necessarily bad, to have a group of guys who like to be social and have fun.  

I am frustrated. I think there should be a long term plan to wind down the troop and merge with the neghboring troop (who is friendly and the kids in our troop go to school with and know the kids in the other troop). I think the Scouts would be happy enough with a merger. The adults I think would prefer to hang on and feel a sense of obligation to long ago Scouters and the troops history -- all those adults are gone and not coming back.  

Any advice?  

My husband wants me to step up.  Learn some knots or something. I don't think the problem is so much lack of adults as it is lack of kids. 

How did it go? 

Does your pack offer a fundraising buyout?  

My oldest is a Life Scout and turns 18 in one year.  He has 5, whoops, now 6 MB's left to finish.  I do not think he will finish everything before July 1.  Maybe, but it depends on his hustle. 

Cit in Society will not have a MB book and it sounds more like a reflection and conversation with a counselor. Might not be all that time-consuming, thank goodness!

This should be a lesson to all troops for what to watch out for.  All bullying is unacceptable in Scouting.  It can be too easy to see scouts with differences as "a problem" and to pressure scouts and parents to leave.  Physical abuse needs to be stopped immediately. Our Youth Protection Training teaches this, but leaders have to be vigilant and have to stand up for ALL YOUTH. 

For dens, meet in homes. Does anyone have enough space to host the pack on their property?  

Call your park director and/or mayor and ask for free use of the pavillion for your non profit once a month. 

On 9/22/2021 at 1:52 PM, UKScouterInCA said:

Agree that Scout Skills are best "taught" in the context of doing real Scouting activities on campouts not so much in isolation. Often a little friendly competition helps.

Cooking - have a patrol cooking competition. Define one meal as having to be cooked on the open fire (also teaches firecraft)

Knots & Lashings - have a patrol competition for the best campsite gadget - maybe a pot holder for the cooking competition above? Or who can build the biggest tower that will support a Scout. Or can fire a tennis ball the furthest? (Assuming BSA hasn't banned catapults and trebuchets)

Navigation - have a little orienteering competition.

 

I am loving the open-ended, campsite gadget idea !

On 9/22/2021 at 1:52 PM, UKScouterInCA said:

Agree that Scout Skills are best "taught" in the context of doing real Scouting activities on campouts not so much in isolation. Often a little friendly competition helps.

Cooking - have a patrol cooking competition. Define one meal as having to be cooked on the open fire (also teaches firecraft)

Knots & Lashings - have a patrol competition for the best campsite gadget - maybe a pot holder for the cooking competition above? Or who can build the biggest tower that will support a Scout. Or can fire a tennis ball the furthest? (Assuming BSA hasn't banned catapults and trebuchets)

Navigation - have a little orienteering competition.

 

Oh the kids, er, Scouts, have made what we call "tripod with a lever".  They LOVED it. 

On 9/21/2021 at 8:46 AM, CynicalScouter said:

Just a heads up, and I don't want to get into the 437th debate about whether this was a good/bad decision on the part of BSA, but BSA banned dodgeball a few years ago.

BSA now claims that they ALWAYS banned dodgeball, and yet there is a ton of evidence to the contrary from BSA's own documents and a subject debated in this forum since 2003. https://www.scouter.com/search/?q=dodgeball&updated_after=any&sortby=newest

My mistake, they were playing a game of catch. 

OK, I am a new assistant scoutmaster, and we have two other new assistant scoutmasters. In addtion, the kids in our troop trend younger.

We do not have a strong command of scout skills.

However, the bright side is that the kids are having fun at the meetings. At our last one, scouts made an activity to play dodgeball and when you're out, you have to answer a question about hiking / outdoor safety to get back in. 

This was a good idea and they had lots of fun but they did not have a ton of questions prepared. But it was a good effort.

At our recent Zombie outing, the kids first task was to lash a Zombie fence before they could advance to other challenges. The kids struggled but that is OK. 

But as a troop, the kids are going to need more skills so they can safely pursue more adventures. We don't want them to get bored with the basics.

Any suggestions appeciated! Thanks! 

I will brag about how awesome our local fire department is. They are very community oriented. Our fire chief is extremely into community partnerships and outreach to the schools and other community groups.  They are also working to promote work as firefighters and paramedics, dispatchers, etc. They need good people in the future generations. 

I think that the only difficulty is that every troop in the metro area would want them as CO.  But talk about positive adult association.  It's possible that our PD's would also do this for outreach and community building. 

Our fire chief is in the business of safety. I am sure they would learn the training, get the YPT and they know how to do things right. 

And they're government. So  not as much liability sticks, at least as far as I can tell.  Everything has pros and cons but I cannot talk enough about how great our local fire department is. 

On 7/26/2021 at 2:05 PM, Eagle69 said:

Here in Arkansas the Bishop has sent a letter telling all Methodist Churches to NOT sign a new Charter Agreement after 12/31/2021, but instead to go to a Facility Use Agreement between the Church, the Troop and the Council. Scout Units will now become a group that meets at the Church instead of a part of the church and the church basically has no connection to the Troop.  This agreement has to be formally signed by all parties.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

This totally sounds like they want to reduce liability in case of future abuse lawsuits. 

One of the things I enjoyed at scout camp this year was seeing the trailers and flags of units from all over, as well as seeing who some of the sponsors were.  Fire departments sponsor units.  VFW's sponsor units.  There are a lot of places that will help with this, and a lot of people who see the value in Scouting.  Our units are sponsored by parent-teacher school organizations. If we had to look for more sponsors, I would likely approach our local Friends of the Library and Friends of the Nature Center non-profit groups,  

I am late to this and have not read all the replies but instead of giving out titles, delegate tasks -- hey, would you have time to do our Scout Shop shopping for all the awards?  Let them do it once. Then ask for repeat help.  Then slip them an advancement guide...  little baby steps.

Hey, would you come along with grocery shopping for our campout?  

Would you help plan our October outing?

I'd start off with one-off, low commitment jobs.  Then see how they do with those, then give PROFUSE THANKS and invite again. 

Do not forget the Profuse Thanks stage. People need to feel appreciated!

Really great suggestions, thank you!

I was talking to another adult leader at camp who asked me, "is this your only camp this summer?"

And I was like, "what? you go to more than one camp?"

And they said, "yes, earlier this summer some of our scouts went to Tesomas and now we are here."  He mentioned that they sometimes struggle to get enough adults for the camp that's farther away.

This sort of blew my mind.  Two summer camps?  I discussed this with my husband, but he quickly said that he does not have enough time to do two summer camps.  

I also wonder, if anyone here knows, how hard is it to get into Tesomas?  I have heard multi-year wait but I am not sure.

I also wonder, how hard is it to get into the high adventure camps, Philmont, Northern Tier, Sea Base and Summit.

Our adult leaders had an interesting conversation while the kids were out at merit badges about portaging canoes and that it's not necessarily easy.  We were told a story of college age guys who went canoeing but did not bring enough food and were miserable on their trip. My husband and I are feeling old as age 50+ leaders.  I know that sounds weak but there are some things that younger people are better at.  Neither one of us are in good enough shape at this point to do a physically strenuous trip, and that's a sad state.  I just make the weight for high adventure but my kees are getting stiff.  He is currently above BMI. 

Just making conversation.  Thanks!

This is something that I heard for the first time while at camp, the Scout Vesper second verse...

Listen Lord, oh listen Lord,
As I whisper soft and low,
Bless my Mom and bless my Dad,
There is something they should know.
I have kept my honor bright.
The Oath and Law has been my guide.
Mom and Dad, this you should know,
Deep in my heart I love you so.

The thing that struck me is the "mom and dad" mentions.  When I was recently having a discussion about culturally responsive teaching with our school superintendent, she mentioned an example from a kindergarten class with a young teacher who was often referring to "mom and dad".  However, one of the little 5 year olds did not have a mom and dad,  they had two dads.  

I wonder if the verse with "mom and dad" still works for Scouts in the 21st century.  I very much appreciate moms and dads, but I wonder if this verse is painful for any Scouts. 

Just thinking.

Also, one of my female Scouter friends asked me to write on the adult feedback form that the camp store should carry feminine hygeine products along with the stuff they have.  I am at a point where I don't have to worry about periods anymore, but I thought she made a good comment.  Teen girl scouts (and venturers, and... are there female sea scouts? and adult female scouts) may need these supplies at times.

4 minutes ago, Jameson76 said:

I was at our council camp last week.  Wandered around picking out my potential new home site.  Mountain and lake view preferred.

Just kidding but sad that the properties are clearly in the discussion.

You know, I would not might living on a site of a camp.  I would prefer to live adjacent to a working camp though.  Dreams are free...

2 hours ago, mrjohns2 said:

We are in Wisconsin and we were told a couple of months back that all four of our camps that have supper camp programs will likely survive. I thought that was a bold statement. 

That might be optimistic.  As long as our camps have enough space and time to give the kids a good outdoor experience and capacity does not get too over-full, that is good.  

I have not spent as much time at camps as my family.  Our troop used to go to LeFeber (closed), then Gartner Dam (shifted focus more to cub programs), then Ma Ka Ja Wan (hit by derecho) and this year Long Lake.  We are staying closer to home.  Thunderstorms are scary for some of the kiddos who went through that severe weather in 2019. 

2 hours ago, Eagle1993 said:

Us too.  Tight timeline to respond. We were told we will know by August.  They council was saying there are 19 camps in Wisconsin so no they can probably do with less.  Unfortunately every council is saying that and I’m currently at a camp that was sold (in Wisconsin).

I'm in Three Harbors, so our camps are Indian Mound Scout Reservation in Oconomowoc and Oh Da Ko Ta in Burlington.  Both are nice camps.  Both have a lot of people attached to the camps so it is tough.  We are visiting Potawatomi Council's Long Lake for summer camp this year and looking forward to it.  

The most valuable part of Scouting is the people.  There are some tremendous Scouters in the council and I hope that they are not too discouraged.  I also hope that, hey could we find some big donor somewhere?  I don't know.  Seems like we would have already had one if that's the case.  

2 hours ago, 69RoadRunner said:

Well said. I think the current YPT measures are very good. They do rely on people following them. A conspiracy of 2 registered adults could result in a failure.

Let's all do our part to provide a safe program for the youth in our charge.

I know the victims will forever be affected by what happened to them. I hope they are able to find some peace in their lives.

And last, I hope Avis has our 2 vans at the Miami airport so we can get to Sea Base on Monday.

I agree that the YPT training is very good.  Very, very good and I'd even say it may be the gold standard for youth protection at this point in time in the United States.  If you have not seen it, take a look.  Note it may be triggering, it makes me feel very emotional and it is memorable and important information. 

Our council has two camps and sent a survey asking members about them.  It sounds likely that one or maybe both would be sold.  Our up north camp was sold a while back.  

It is hard to say one camp is better than the other, as we have good memories at both.  One camp has much better facilities and cabins, the other is more wild.  I think either could be made into a subdivision or whatever if sold.   The up north camp has had nothing happen with it as far as I know.   

Update;  my husband (current SM) and CC connected and my husband is going to let this go.  He offered to talk with the former SM but they have not reached out to him to discuss.  CC will have my husband's back and we do not have any parent committee meetings until Fall so perhaps this will just fade away.  CC is committed to making sure that during troop committee meetings that people will speak up if they have things to say and will help with the communication pieces.  

Onward to a troop fundraiser today,  and bringing one of our kiddos home from NYLT this afternoon.  

On 6/14/2021 at 10:37 AM, qwazse said:

Well, if somebody is sending a scouter angry texts, that could explain shorter-than-average terms.

I am not sure why but it seems to have been planned that way, perhaps by the committee chair we had two people ago.