Eagle94-A1

Yeah, the lawsuit caused a lot of Scouting endowments to be raided.

Does anyone have the stats on OA membership over the past few years? The section below concerns me. Has the OA fallen so much, that temporary units can now have elections? depending upon when the election is held, folks may not know anyone to judge them worthy or not. EDITED. Found OA annual reports here https://oa-scouting.org/resources/publications/impact-report In the 2014 report, we had 171,211 Arrowmen registered. In the 2024 annual report, we had 98,473 registered Arrowmen. That is a 43% drop in 10 years!

Do not remind me of the changes.. Yes, some lodges were doing things wrong. Other lodges were doing it properly. I don't think if the local Native nation has both youth and elders involved with the OA, doing ceremonies, dancing, singing, etc is a problem. Heck one lodge had a tribal councilman as a member, and his cousin was a ceremonialist. Another lodge had a powwow drum started at an OA event. I was active when the change was made. I and a few others said the OA will slowly die as a result of letting everyone in. I gave them 20-25 years. I think the 100th Anniversary gave it a little more life, and of course the patch collectors. OK, I admit, I have read names off of scrolls and the back of shield for AOL and Call Outs. Especially if the pack didn't have anything with their names on it. But completely agree with reading from paper for the main ceremonies. I would rather the "contemplative pause" or even ad libbing the lines, especially if the ceremonialist knew the meaning and purpose of the lines. Instead of using an adult nomination form, they put the SM on the ballot with the youth, and had the Youth vote on him.

I think OA, and national by extension, is getting desperate for money. Between this and "interesting" elections, to increase membership, I have my wories.

I have been inactive for quite some time. Once the kids became Cubs, I had to pick and choose what to focus on, and OA went out the window. My chapter essentially folded circa 2017, as that was the last time elections were held. Tried to get them to come, no response. Well the SM got a neighboring chapter to come in for an election. Yep our chapter is dead, and the hope is the chapter can get restarted. But here is the funny thing. 1. The chapter advisor ran the entire election process. Youth basically said their names and whether they were Brotherhood or Vigil. 2. As long as you were First Class, the camping no longer mattered. 3. The only adult, 21+, was voted on and not nominated. 4. Everyone seemed to get elected, including folks who had just joined the troop, and no one really knows them. While I am glad they got elected, This shocked me. Is this now the norm, or a freak anomaly?

Glad you got a good job, cause i sure don't.

I do not know where you live, but in my neck of the woods $237 IS a lot of money for folks, especially with multiple kids. I am in a rural area with high poverty rate. As for value, (sarcasm on) what's a professional? Are those the paid folks who are supposed to help units with recruiting? I have heard of these mythical creatures, and thought they were extinct since it has been so long since I have seen one.(sarcasm off) If I wasn't trying to laugh, I would be crying.

Oh, but council can add weird fees. A friend of mine's council has a $77 Council fee added to the individual, and a $75/Scout fee added to the unit recharter. $85+77+75 = $237 per Scout per year in that council. Don't forget awards and activity supplies have skyrocketed too.

WOW, who could have predicted rolling registration would be a "Charley Foxtrot?" 🤔

Another reason on adult attitudes was WHEN (emphasis) they were in Scouting. I know a former Scouter who was an Eagle in the 1972-1979 "Improved Scouting Program" era. That was when it was possible to be an Eagle without a single night of camping. He could not understand why camping was important.

As much as I like the idea, the cow is out the barn regarding advancement. I remember watching some national online meeting during COVID, I think it was 2021 National Meeting, where National was praising a FL council for having online MBUs and awarding over 20,000 MBs during the pandemic. As for adults bringing back integrity, you already have adults trying to cut corners on training. I had adults trying to get me to sign off on their training, but would not staff a class, or when it was allowed, test out of the class. Sorry if I am pessimistic.

I know when we did how a troop meeting is done with the old SM Fundamentals (SMF) Training, we were told we were to act like Scouts, and work as patrols during our meeting. Maybe because of my age at the time, but I didn't have problems. And I didn't notice any of my patrol mates having problems either. If memory serves, the model PLC used the actual SMF troop PLs with the rest of us watching. But I may be getting confused with BA22 and JLTC. But I agree 100%, training needs to focus more on interaction with Scouts through mentoring and counseling. That was a skill set, counseling PLs while being SPL or JASM, with both BA 22 and JLTC, was very applicable as an adult.

Today's Scouting is not the same program as it use to be. The Cub Scout Program was completely revamped in 2015, with a revision of those requirements in December 2016 . My then Webelos 2 said they "watered down requirements" because they made things easier to earn. Thankfully the pack decided to ignore the 2016 changes until June 2017 because the "immediate" changes were major enough to cause advancement delays, as well as force the pack to change their programming. And they have changed the program a few more times since 2017, with the latest being Webelos cannot begin transitioning to Scouts as that happens in 5th grade now. As for Scouts, the emphasis is on advancement, not fun, adventure, and growth.

Learning for Life is not a bonus. LFL is a subsidiary that most councils, at least the ones I have been in and work for, don't want to have, because once established, they need that program to grow as well. I got into major trouble for tryng to convert "In School Scouting" units to LFL groups. I don't think they are trying to cheat the system. I think they are tyring to synchronize their Scout's membership renewal with the unit's recharter.