SSF

The Boy Scouts of America are becoming "family friendly" (a huge mistake) and the troop in question is being overrun by parents who don't value the patrol method. What is the solution?

I don't know why so many Boy Scout leaders keep insisting that boys just want to have "fun." There are scouts who actually do want to work towards advancement and no, that doesn't always meant that their mom or dad are ardently pushing them from behind the scenes.

Those guys look like Boy Scouts for sure Someone is mocking Cooking merit badge...oh no!!!!

Let's deal with the facts as we have them and avoid hypotheticals. In this particular case, there were three separate rooms available. One for the adults and two for the scouts. The adults collectively agreed that they would stay in one room and the scouts would be divided in the two others. The scouter in question - regardless of his motive or intention - chose to remove himself from the adults room to go and sleep in one of the other room with the scouts at a very late hour and without informing any of the other adults that he was planning to do this. That's troubling to me. Wheth

Not sure why you are even asking this question. There was a clear violation here and it should be reported. Council and perhaps the COR can make the final determination on whether or not there was a violation, but as a responsible scouter you need to report this. Snoring...give me a break.

But what was Rotten Tomatoes audience score...? You didn't mention that. Did the audience also rate it at 90%? No, the audience score is an abysmal 50%...lower than any of the prequels; yeah, I think the audience did hate this movie. Let's also look at the numbers of the sample sizes of the critics vs. audience ratings. We have 318 critics who collectively loved the movie and gave it that average of 90%, but on the flip side we have nearly 170,000 audience ratings from people who thought the movie sucked. If you want to delude yourselves into believing that the mass audiences l

Yeah, I remember that poll on this site...again though, let's be honest, the idea of girls in the Boy Scouts has not been well received. For my one vote, I'm an Eagle and I think girls in Boy Scouts is absurd. Complacency is a big problem, IMHO, among scouters in the BSA. All too often, they're willing to just look the other way or do nothing. When people sit by and let the special interest proponents do whatever they want, we end up with girls in the Boy Scouts...

Fair enough about wanting to see evidence. Let's be realistic and honest though...Americans are not onboard and do not fully support the idea of girls joining the Boy Scouts. This was very much pushed through by Surbaugh with the intent of getting it done quickly and quietly. Practically overnight, the BSA went from "we're just considering this" to "welcome girls!" I have no doubt that a lot of people are afraid to share their true feelings for fear of being labeled a misogynist or being ostracized in some way. The BSA, and Boy Scout leaders in particular, have a long bad histor

I originally posted this to highlight the parallel between the backlash against the overt feminism and social justice propaganda in the Last Jedi to the backlash that the BSA has faced over opening its doors to girls. In both cases, a small minority of individuals in power positions – who held divergent and extreme views, not shared by the vast majority of their respective constituents – managed to successfully force their views and agenda on their constituents; despite the fact that the vast majorities were strongly opposed to such. Yes, there are those who support girls being able

I'm glad you and your son liked the movie. A lot of people who saw it were pretty let down by it though, but if what this movies conveyed is your thing, then I'm glad it worked for you.

True, it's an old gag about "smart women and dim witted men" in comedies (as well as a lot of commercials) but I think we can agree that Star Wars isn't a tongue in cheek or low brow comedy. Sorry, the banter between Leia and Han in the original trilogy hardly constitutes a feminist agenda in the movie. Lucas never made Han seem like an incompetent moron while Leia was perfect and always had the solution for everything. That's just not an accurate comparison at all. When SW, ESB and ROTJ came out, there was no mass backlash against the movie because of subvert themes of feminism

I don't use the the word propaganda lightly, but this extreme force feeding of feminism and anti-male, anti-capitalism, anti-religion, social justice, was most definitely propaganda and social engineering, aka indoctrination. Whether you loved or hated this movie, you have to appreciate that scores of longtime Star Wars fans were nothing short of disgusted by this movie. Yes, lots of movies have a message, and that's all fine and good, as long as that message is in-line with the story arc, but there was no basis for any of the crap that Kathleen Kennedy and Rian Johnson insisted on shovin

This wasn't a movie. This was propaganda masquerading itself as family entertainment. This is how real social engineering occurs.

Yes, the anti-religion propaganda was another issue with this movie

I actually haven't seen the movie. For a lot of reasons, I was disappointed with The Force Awakens and from what I was hearing about the The Last Jedi (i.e. the amped up feminism, the social justice themes and aspects of the story that seem to be aimed at destroying the original Star Wars legacy) I just couldn't support the movie, which is very sad to me as this was Carrie Fisher's final film and it also represented Mark Hamill's real return to the screen as Luke Skywalker; both of which I definitely would have ideally wanted to support fully. ****SPOILER**** From what I have heard

I can't help but draw a parallel to the recent backlash from many longtime Star Wars fans against the newest Star Wars movie just released, The Last Jed,i to some of the BSA's more recent decisions regarding its membership and leadership policies. In the case of both Star Wars and the Boy Scouts of America, for multiple decades, there has been a long standing franchise/organization which each had a deep rooted core audience which each embraced the fundamental philosophies, principles, legacy and history of the franchise/organization. Jump to 2017 though and in the case of both the S

The BSA and Surbaugh opened the door to this as soon as they opened the door to girls joining Boy Scouts...it's like that one loose thread on a piece cloth, just waiting to be pulled on...inevitably the whole cloth will unravel

This is all a game for those old school scouters Wisconsin. They relish in patting themselves on the back for all that they do for their unit while simultaneously complaining about how clueless and ungrateful the parents are and how those parents never really volunteer to help. However, the caveat to that is that those leaders don't genuinely and sincerely invite the new parents to help and that's why so many new parents don't get more actively involved. Deep down I believe the old school scouters really love things just the way they are...they like to be in control, they like to be the c

I had a good experience as a scout and a lot of fond memories of my time as a scout and earning Eagle. I wanted my sons to have the same experience and I wanted to be actively involved to give back to the program. In hindsight, if I knew then what I know now, when I initially encouraged my older son to join the Cub Scouts, I would never have allowed he or my younger son to ever get involved with the Boy Scouts of America.

I guess I'm going to be the odd man out on this, since I have a bit of a different take. It does sound as though this mother has been a real pain for a long time and some steps have been taken to encourage her to amend her difficult ways. The Pack could reasonably make the case that this mother made her own bed and now she has to lie in it; i.e. that she should be kicked out and banned from all Pack functions. Barring any kind of issues of youth protection or safety, the act of removing a parent or a leader is an extreme one and should only be taken as an absolute last resort after a

Regarding the scout in question, are you saying that you actively plan to remove the scout from the Pack? Or are you presuming that when the mother is removed/banned that she will pull her son out of the Pack? The mother claiming that she is the Pack Treasurer is certainly a problem, if that's in fact the case. Did she ever previously occupy that role and if so, did you inform her that she was being removed from that position and/or that someone else would be taking over that role? Beyond the Treasurer's issue, can you provide some specifics or details on the concerns that this

No judgement intended whatsoever and I readily admit that there are certainly parents out there who do try to steamroll through everything and do cross the line between supporting their sons and doing the work for them.

From my reading of what you've shared, a 17 year old scout wants to obtain Eagle. He is working towards that goal and you and the troop committee have put a plan in place as to what level of participation he must maintain to achieve that. The father appears to be very concerned about whether or not his son will achieve the rank. As the clock is ticking towards his 18th birthday, I can certainly appreciate his concern. You state that you don't like the father and you expect that soon you and he will "face off soon." Is it possible that some of this animosity towards the father is being

I've seen tons of posts on this board about the bane of "helicopter parents" and I've always thought that the level of animosity directed at this parents is a bit overkill. If I were an outsider (unfamiliar with the BSA) looking in at this, my first reaction would be "why are boy scout leaders so intent on separating boys from their parents and why are they so secretive and defensive?" I also realize that while the phenomenon of "helicopter parents" is not solely unique to scouting. Scout leaders seem to have the most animosity and anger over the topic of involved parents. When I

The OP is looking for solutions to the dilemma that her son is in, not to be lectured on how her son should have been more detailed and thorough in outlining the scope of work in his proposal. I'm sure the scout himself regrets not being more detailed in his proposal and in his communications with the beneficiary. The vast majority of project beneficiaries are highly supportive. For whatever reason, this beneficiary is not. Either that or there's been some gross misunderstanding. Maybe they saw this as an opportunity to receive free labor and,nothing more and are now essentially holdi