Col. Flagg

On literally every high adventure or summer camp I have staffed over the years there has been at least a handful of Scouts who have remarked how nice it was to be away from siblings and parents to just "chill". Same with weekend camp outs. When you take the "SM Walk" at night to quietly do bed check, you hear the guys talking about various things. The most consistent topic, besides girls and video games, is how cool it is to be "grown up" and not have family around. I bet @Stosh and others have similar stories. I can tell you I have never heard a kid lament not having his siblings ar

Similar to @Back Pack, if you use an iPhone and Safari you can see the new posts icon in the top menu bar. See the pic below...it's the icon to the right of the white arrow. It only shows (at least for me) in the mobile version. I don't see it in the desktop version.

One would hope that's the issue. But looking at the over use of the word "family" in all their social media posts, as well as in BL and Scouting mags, I suspect good old Mike S. wants to do exactly that; make Boy Scouts a one-stop-shop for the family. I don't think his intention is to just make Cubs more family-like. I think his sole purpose for these changes is to make all programs within BSA (Cubs, Boy Scouts, Venturing, etc.) a family experience.

Cub Scouts is a family oriented program. Boy Scouts is NOT a family oriented program. If parents want to join in Boy Scout activities then get trained, become an ASM and help out. Otherwise, stay home and let your boy enjoy his time with his friends, learn from others and experience interaction with adults he's not related to. I am beginning to think "Family Scouting" is just code for giving hopelessly addicted helicopter/lawnmower/bulldozer/drone parents an excuse to fulfill their compulsion for control.

You're welcome. Now stop trolling and use that college tuition money wisely. You should be in class according to the last tuition bill I received.

"Quality Control"? Of what? @fred johnson hit the nail on the head. Quality of the troop = Scoutmaster + COR Quality of troop operations = Committee Chair + COR Quality relating to ANYTHING else = The PLC and the youth leaders Adults intervention -- and all the horse hockey that comes with it (e.g., JTE, Covey, TQM/CQI, CMM, etc.) -- belongs in the adult business world and no where near Scouting. All these adult-led, wood badge-esque principles and other stuff belong in the rubbish bin.

Well, given the new type of parents Boy Scouts is attracting they should be able to save a TON of money by simply changing the "B" in BSA to a "D" and going with their new logo.

Wow...I feel for you. Nothing like putting your heart and soul in to something, only to have a group of folks come in and needlessly ruin what was built.

Nope. Managing meddling non-Scouter adults is NOT the boys' problem. That's what the SM and TC are for, to keep the meddler at bay and to allow the boys to do their thing. In fact, I would argue it is not an SM job either, but rather the TC Chairman's job to keep parents at bay. As SM I ran cover for the boys to make sure meddling, helicopter parents were parked on the runway far away from the boys. Yes, each troops should have that "Come to Jesus" meeting with the parents where they cut the umbilical cords and tell mom and dad what their role as parent is. Then they have the same

Here's the thing: It's called BOY Scouts...at least for now. Not Parent Scouts or Family Scouts or Adult Scouts. The whole program is designed for a whole bunch of boys to be monitored and counseled by trained adults...and even then not a whole ton of adults. There is ZERO need for mom (or dad) to be around to help their little yum yum. Their Patrol Leader and patrol mates will help them if there's a problem. The TRAINED adults leaders -- who should know how the program works, as well as the policies and procedures -- will be around to help if there's the need. Other than that, Boy Scouts don'

Good Lord. No one is blaming them for undermining male role models. What I have seen is a few people, me among them, addressing the notion that Boy Scouts is gender neutral. It isn't. From its founding until this past month, it was totally focused on boys. Until women were allowed in, adult association was primarily between boys and men. Since then I would wager that the vast majority of unit-based interaction is between boys and men. No one is blaming women. At worst we are blaming BSA leadership for dismantling a successful program only to save their own salaries and membership stat

Careful, Stosh. You might be accused of "Man-splaining" or "Man-spreading".

Our troop had a kid with a Leopard Gecko but we had too many guys to rotate through taking care of it. We set up a webcam for the troop to use and they monitored the gecko that way. In addition to that the guys doing remote monitoring for the requirement also took turns working at a local refuge that had reptiles and amphibians.

Just because something was written in a different era does not make it, on it's face, wrong or out-of-date. The merits of learning in a single-sex environment have not been definitively proven or disproved in the years since it's writing; therefore, making the argument that "Well, it was written over a hundred years ago." is summarily dismissing something that has not yet been proven dismissable. Fact #1: B-P created Scouting with the intent of boys being together to learn and grow, along with (male) adult association. Fact #2: Fact #1 has not been proven to be a bad thing. In fact, it

Can women hold Scouting roles likes MBC, SM, ASM, TC chair and do an equal or better job than men? Sure! As with anything you will have good and bad of each gender no matter the role. What you appear to be strongly discounting is the need of young men to associate with older men in a single sex environment. THAT is why Scouting was created in the first place. Baden-Powell says as much (several times) in Aids to Scoutmastership. In fact the section covering the aims and methods of Scouting say nothing of "girls", but focus on boys. So Boy Scouting -- with all of its rules, policies, aims an

If you are going to delete posts where people respond to accusations, at least delete the offending post too. Seriously, try to be a little less one-sided. I'll expect you to ban me for a day again. Right? Geesh.

Great point. I was amazed at what some units charge. My unit just charges the recharter fee for adults. Some units charge that AND other annual fees for the unit. One local unit is $75/year for adults!!!

Cheese fries. Don't forget cheese fries!!!!

I think most American volunteers need to be dragged in to volunteering. The biggest issue I have seen over the years is getting the adults to make a connection between what units need and how they can help. Some folks just dive in, see what's needed and begin helping. Some folks may dive in to a role but not move outside of it despite seeing or knowing something else is needed. Some wait to be asked, knowing help is needed. Some are so clueless you need to show them so much it's just easier and faster to do it yourself. In my mind we need to connect with the first three g

Barry, I agree the commercial is effective. But does that get people to volunteer? Or just encourage people to put their kids in Scouts? In my mind we would need a commercial that shows the benefits an adult volunteer can pass on (or learn for himself) by being a Scout volunteer.

Great idea!! Our unit has been there and it is a GREAT place!! In fact, I would do it again before I ever went to The Summit. Seems they have overnight stays on houseboats. They are in the Atchafalaya near Lafayette (pronounced down there as "La-FI-et"), which is about two hours away from the Big Easy proper. Other things to do there (yeah, they're touristy): Beignets at Cafe du Monde The WWII museum Audubon Zoo St. Louis Cemetary (I know, morbid, but actually pretty cool. Our guys loved it). Mardi Gras World (See floats and other stuff) The Cabildo (18th Century mansion where LA Pur

Exactly what we did Stosh. Best work we had ever seen done!

Given the entirely new apparatus BSA will have to put in place for a dual-track, separate-but-equal program for girls, they are going to need a helluva lot of volunteers. If they don't get in front of this issue the program roll out will fall flat on it's face. I suspect they will take the "ambush" approach most Packs take to staffing Tiger (Lion) dens: Get all the new parents together and ask someone to volunteer to be the new leader. Not an ideal model.

Yes, there were two polls done about the 2013 and 2015 membership policy changes. In both polls the majority of respondents voted against changing BSA's membership policy. They have been discussed and quoted in this forum often enough. CalicoPenn knows darn well these polls exist and are not a figment of one's imagination. There were similar polls done by select councils about the girls in Scouting vote, but those results (not surprisingly) have not been release UNLESS they supported the BSA position. My own council did a poll and was touting over 1000 people responding. The results? Neve