SSF

@Devotedautismadhdmom I'm sorry that you have had to endure what seems to have been a very stressful situation for you, and indirectly for your son, who I'm sure has picked up on how difficult this has been on you. I'm really astonished by this situation...a guy with an alleged drug possession charge appoints himself Cubmaster of a Pack despite complete opposition from the COR and yourself as CC...then council supposedly approves him as a registered leader and you and the COR feel that you are completely powerless to remove him, despite the fact that you and the COR both have all of the

You'd also think that with all of that time in the woods, somebody would have seen a Bigfoot by now too

I'm so sorry to hear about this situation. The BSA should absolutely adopt a policy that expressly prohibits retaliation of any form against scouts, scouters or parents who do report, in good faith, any clear violations of BSA policy. That's long overdue. Can you be more specific about the actual retaliation that occurred? You mention "social pressure" and you mentioned bullying ad hazing in your initial post. Was that the extent of the retaliation or was there more?

Do you feel that hiking is a more valuable life skill to have over swimming?

Not judging, but it always seems like an automatic response on this site to say "quick, find another troop" when there are advancement issues or a rogue SM. No one ever really talks about the impact of transferring and uprooting a scout from his current troop, and his fellow scouts and friends there, to going to a completely different troop where he knows no one... It's not an easy transition and it's completely unfair to the scout to have to find a new troop because his scoutmaster, and leaders, are not administering the BSA program correctly

I've been asking this very same question for the past ten years. I've concluded that in the BSA rules really are made to be broken...or more accurately, ignored. I couldn't agree with you more strongly on this though. There are a lot of good scouts who have suffered because of petty, ego driven Scoutmasters who truly feel that their way is better than the BSA's way.

Yes, that's a very good point.

The CO owns the unit, however, they are still chartered under the BSA and are therefore obligated to run the BSA program as intended. If the CO doesn't want any limitations on what they can or can't do then they should establish themselves as something other than a BSA unit; i,.e. the Charter Org Youth Group or the Dads and Sons Camping Club, rather than a legitimately established BSA unit. Also, the vast majority of CO's tend to be far removed from the operations of their units and take a very hands off approach to how those units are being run. I realize this may not be the

This is the root of the problem, in that units can choose to completely disregard BSA regulations and policies without any real repercussion. Obviously all units operate a bit differently and there can be some gray areas, in how programs are administered, but conversely, there are also clear, black and white, cases of ethical wrongdoing (perhaps not illegal, but unquestionably unethical) in which the BSA needs to step in, take action, enforce the GTA and GTSS and if necessary remove scout leader(s) and/or unit charters of leaders or units who prove to be detrimental or willful towards th

An effective manager, or leader, in scouting or elsewhere will strive to guide their subordinates rather than dictate to them. Hopefully the subordinate will then be able to realize the impact of their decisions while retaining their autonomy and without feeling as though they are being undermined by their manager; e.g. Instead of a manager saying to his employee: "You're doing that wrong You need to do it this way." The manager could say to the employee: "Why do you think that things aren't working in the way that you would ideally like them to? Are there things that could be done d

I'm sorry that your son is in this situation. One of the most unjust and ridiculous aspects of the BSA is the fact that Scoutmasters, and/or units, that choose to violate established BSA policies on advancement, face no real opposition from the BSA. I don't know of a single case of a Scoutmaster ever being removed from his position for adding requirements. While he is clearly in the wrong, this SM can decide to not grant your son his scoutmaster conference for Eagle, not sign his completed Eagle project workbook and/or not sign his completed Eagle application; any one of which w

There is and was no such requirement in the BSA. It sounds like this was a 'unit requirement'' that your SM or other leaders within your troop had put in place themselves I would have to put this into the adding requirements bucket

Does it really matter which thread this discussion is included in? If there was no issue when all of the comments towards the video were positive, then there's no issue when some of the comments are critical or negative. It's not reasonable in my opinion to begin moving posts around just because someone offers an opposing view to the original poster. What I'm taken aback by in the video is the rather arrogant smirk that the one girl displays after shooting a bullseye on the target. She is not smiling, she is clearly smirking. I think the director intended for that target to rep

This is ultimately an open forum...or at least it's supposed to be.

We may disagree on things related to Star Wars, but I couldn't agree with you more strongly on this. Very well said.

It's my understanding that the BSA has for many, many years embraced the belief that the best way to get rid of criticism (at least from within the BSA) has been to simply get rid of the critic. There is strength in numbers though, so if you can rally and gain the support of others who are willing to stand up to this SE, then that will speak volumes. He will not be able to dismiss that many voices against him.

It's clear that you're very passionate about this, so I'm sorry to be a naysayer, but I have to agree with your son's advisor. I don't think this is a worthwhile project at all. My advice to your son would be to take a step back from this and consider if he is willing to invest the time and effort into writing up a formal proposal for this, when there is a high degree of rejection. Perhaps talk with the school about some other ideas that might make for a good project. Naturally, it's up to your son as to how he wants to proceed, but there is a high degree that this project will

How old is your son and what prevented him from completing the merit badge at summer camp? In my experience, most scouts, and even their parents, have little concern for whether or not they can actually swim well...they just want the merit badge. I'm a Swimming MB counselor and a dad from my son's troop recently asked me if I would sign off on Swimming MB for his son, who's 12 or 13. I had a few issues with: 1) The fact that the dad and not the scout was approaching me about this 2) That this particular dad seemed to have the expectation that I would automatically s

Correct, you didn't say "all" boys, but you did imply very clearly that you feel that boys in general, are certainly likely to doing something against girls. That's an unfair generalization to make.

You said, "If boys will do this to another boy, they will certainly try it with girls." The key word you used was "certainly" i.e. you're saying that it's not only possible, but according to you, a matter of certainty, that this will happen to girls because of the incident shared in this post You re-emphasize and try to support your broad generalization and aspersion against boys by referencing inappropriate behavior from boys at the jamboree. The implication of your statement was very clear.

@BsideI'm very sorry that this happened to your son and the horrible position that this horrendous incident has put you, your son and your family in.

I'm addressing the implication made that 'if one boy does this, all boys are likely to do this.' I'm not defending this particular SPL by any means. What he did was horrendous, but all boys should not be labeled as a threat to girls because this kid can't control himself.

A lot of speculation in this post. This discussion seems to be veering from addressing this particular incident to 'boys in the boy scouts are now a threat to the girls in the boy scouts'

That's a pretty damning statement to make against boys. So, because of this incident, involving this particular SPL, you feel with great certainty that boys will no doubt do something similar to girls?

I'm not sure how you can tell a scout not to glide after doing a flip turn...? Every recognized swimming stroke involves gliding, some strokes more than others, but every single stoke has a very pronounced glide element to it. You would essentially be telling the scout to swim in an inefficient manner as opposed to swimming in an efficient manner. I see what the objective is though. It might be more practical to have the scout swim the perimeter of the pool and just not allow him to push off the wall, or the bottom course. Of the six summer camps I've been to, four had pools and tha