WisconsinMomma

Hi Darlene, The troop my sons are in is quasi- boy led. They say it's boy led, but it's not 100%. The outings chair takes a survey and then the adults plan the calendar. I am hoping to influence the annual planning process through the committee. It can be so frustrating as a parent to feel like you are shut out of getting information. I feel that the adult leaders should answer your questions, but at the same time, they are trying to teach the boys to take care of themselves and handle their own stuff. Still, parents are a big help, especially for the younger guys. Hang i

It is interesting that families are leaving Girl Scouts for Boy Scouts and if that's a natural result it's not too bad. One little sister told me at blue and gold that she joined girl scouts,and I asked her what she's done in girl scouts and she said -- sell cookies!!! I feel that GS is all cookie, cookie, cookie. if I were a girl mom I would try to get away from it too.

Hi NateMom, I'm sorry that your Pinewood Derby experience was disappointing. I'd suggest you talk to your child's den leader and possibly go to the next committee meeting to discuss your concerns. You may want to join the PWD volunteers next year and work on suggesting some improvements. Good luck! Our PWD team does minor car repairs if cars don't function well, but it's on the spot and imperfect. The cars get placed on take out trays after weigh-in and check in and they are minimally handled throughout the event.

I don't have any connection to this seller, except I found their store today and ordered some frames for two of our retiring leaders. This Etsy store has some nice appreciation gift items. I ordered two custom frames and think they will turn out great! Just a resource if you are interested: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FireflyCustom/items?ref=l2-shopheader-name&section_id=21332934

Good suggestions. I think the largest item is a Klondike sled that might not be that precious to the troop, but I'm not sure. I've never seen any of the stuff. Maybe the district has some connections for storage, too.

Unfortunately, we're not allowed to have a shed on CO property.

Our Troop has generally had stuff stored in the Scoutmaster's garage. Prior to that, it was spread among various homes, but that can be logistically challenging? Our incoming SM does not have space for the Troop's stuff and our CO does not offer space. We rent a spot for our Troop Trailer at a storage facility that is apparently reasonable. Maybe we would purchase another trailer just for storage. It seems storage facilities are expensive. Any suggestions? How does your Troop mange its stuff?? Thanks!

I think that people can and do change, but not always.

I don't have a complete answer, but I like it when families come to a cub scout family weekend hosted by Council. It is a weekend of easy, supported camping. Venturing camp staff will meet you at your group site and offer to help you if you need help setting up. Meals are all in the dining hall, but the kids run around outside all weekend and it's great. Our Pack weekend campouts are also good. It's a cabin camping weekend with dining hall food and outdoor activities planned by the den leaders, and a lot of advancement stuff related to the outdoors. Parents can come along, or if th

Got data? I am more concerned about traffic crashes, high adventure safety / basic safety, and sex abuse prevention because I expect the odds of all of those to be greater.

Our Blue and Gold dinner is in the basement of a city building, and the upstairs neighbor is the police department. You gotta remember that this stuff is very rare though.

Our Pack is currently : AOL - male, Webelos - male, Bear - female, Wolf - male Tiger - male Lions - our female CC leads the Lions Our CC is a female that is the daughter of a Montana forest ranger, very experienced in the outdoors Our COR is a non camper mom Our Assistant CM is a male military recruiter Tiger dad, he will be CM in the 2019 school year and could have been CM this year but was concerned about deployment. I'm filling in a year while he gets more familiar with Scouting. Den leader burnout is a thing. I honestly think it is a thankless and ta

Hey, way to blame moms for BSA's numbers. 100% of my scouts crossed over, only 4 of 6 are still in scouts one year later. One left for sports, the other for disinterest. In some families the crossover seems to be about the parents -- and especially -- families and boys who choose sports over Scouting, and parents who think Boy Scouting is uncool for their children's social status.

It seems that the flag is half staff so much more in recent years than before. It is very sad.

@AVTech tell me more about the website. I will google it. We use Scoutlander and its OK, definitely not great.

Yes but isn't this where the Scoutmaster guides them? Isn't there something like -- well if you want to go to Disneyland -- how can you make it relevant to scouting, and are you willing to do extra fundraising?

I am considering giving feedback on our recent Court of Honor. It was OK -- it was about two hours. It was about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes of Scout led, the rest was adult announcements, incuding a lengthy FOS presentation. OK, if we're going to have high standards, it sucked. I have been to a few COHs now and the pattern is the boys do their thing and then the adults go on and on informing the parents of every little thing -- calendar, upcoming fundraiser, camperships, FOS -- it really shouldn't have taken that long, but it did! The boys had to sit through all of it! I had to sit

Thanks for the discussion, this is good. My concern with my sons' troop is that the camping coordinator tells them up front -- don't say Disney World -- on your survey about where you want to go and what you want to do. And my thought is -- why not Disney? Sure, it is expensive, but let them dream big and figure out how to make it happen or decide for themselves to adjust their plans. I am considering rattling the adults about this at our next meeting... trying to push a little bit at a time.

I will simply attest that folks like this exist, but also acknowledge that they are far outnumbered by good Scouters.

When I first started, I did some reading about Boy Scout advancement, and all of the ins and outs. This whole idea of first class in a year (and it's out there as an expectation) is generally unreasonable and a bunch of garbage. But when I read online somewhere that Scouts should get first class in a year, I worried. Now I realize that that expectation is lame, and I am not as worried about my sons, a 13 year old, second year, second class and an 11 year old tenderfoot (He's been in the troop 11 months, what's wrong with being Tenderfoot at 11 months??). My oldest might make first clas

I assumed the fundraising forms were to show a basic accounting for the income and expenses of the project. This is in my view, for accountability, so a Scout learns to show that donations are used properly and recorded properly. You don't want a Scout accidentally or intentionally pocketing cash donations -- so those should be recorded and noted in a way that shows that the Scout can handle donations responsibly and has a sense of integrity regarding financial management.

That's the truth!

I don't think I've met any mansplainers in Scouting that I remember. I have met a couple big-talkers, who make themselves look very important by giving very detailed descriptions of the work they do and how important it is, and whose way of doing thing is of course, the only possible right way to do anything. Two separate examples -- giving long talks at meetings repeatedly how they handle every detail of and every single moving part, telling all the stories of every detail of their recent accomplishments, and generally taking up most of the air during meetings. In another case, a Troop

Oooh, mansplaining! It exists. I think it's fairly rare though. https://www.bustle.com/articles/136319-6-subtle-forms-of-mansplaining-that-women-encounter-each-day Here's the first Google hit for mansplaining in the news. Short story -- man at dance club is creepy to women and they get him kicked out. To me this is mostly a case of natural consequences -- men who are socially inept don't get many dance partners. I don't think this story is about mansplaining at all. In old fashioned terms if a man is being too difficult, frisky, or rough with the dance club's female member

This was your training in California, right? I'm midwestern and I don't want to pick on your state too much, but California sometimes gets a reputation for being a little ... special.