Eagle1993

Talking with parents, concussions are definitely hurting football enrollment but not soccer. Football in our area is having trouble fielding full teams.... Sports specialization is starting incredibly young. When I was a kid you played rec sports until Junior High when travel would start. Even then, you could be a multi sport athlete rather easily. As a parent I have seen the changes. Travel soccer starts at 6. With my son I resisted the change (and he wasn’t that into soccer). By 8 all of the talented players (and coaches) were in select and we were left with parents yelling at kids whose only focus is keeping score and they provided no instruction on how the game should be played (in part because soccer is not that popular as a professional sport). He hated it and we dropped out. The rec league pretty much ends at 10 anyway... since everyone drops by then. We just signed our daughter up to a full year soccer select club ... at 6. She likes soccer and the instructors are great. Itis expensive and we are concerned with burnout; however, we know that keeping her in rec leads to no skill progress and dropout anyway. While this is an issue the other issue is there is no way we can also sign her up for another sport as select soccer is all year. In addition it competes with time for scouts, music and just open play. Scouts has some tough competition for kids’ time, but their program is unique. They should focus on their volunteers and make sure they understand what they need to succeed.

Cub Scout camps... several of our scouts have started attending various council camps over the last several weeks. None of the camps have all girl dens. If girls are present they are simply integrated into the Boy dens. This is probably due to the limited number of girls (1-2 per Den) and lack of volunteers. I would have made the same call, but it does put the whole notion that this will not be coed into question as Packs will see similar numbers for the first year or two. It will be interesting to see how they run them next year when more girls are present.

If you think of the politicians as the “corporation” and new laws as the “change” I do believe change management applies. If politicians do not utilize change management principals they will run into major issues after passing laws. (Note that I would never equate lasers with politicians.) 😀 CAP (change acceleration process) has some decent techniques. I think the lack of trust (probably most earned) with Nationals is causing much of the problem. In addition, I don’t see National’s recognizing the lack of quality volunteers as a major issue and designing this change with that in mind.

The BP Northwoods experience for Camp Lefeber ended after the summer of 2016... so it lasted 1 summer after the council shutdown the camp. I am curious what happened... was there not enough campers due to lack of affiliation with BSA? In any case, given the drop in BSA numbers I’m not surprised to see camps close. However, I’m not a fan of selling the land... you will never get it back. If needed, close it and lease it to generate income (private/BSA combined camping, selective logging, farming, etc). Selling it gets you a 1 time large payment but you lose control of the land forever. In the case just sited... the developer doesn’t know what he paid or what he will do with the land??? Wow.

One could debate the sloppiness but the tent number is not clear so the job isn’t done. I’d recommend you work with them on fixing the issue with the scouts and let them know they should feel empowered to ask questions if something doesn’t look quite right. Overall a good life lesson is awaiting them!

I think setting the date for the first female Eagle BOR would make sense. Then Nationals should approve the first group of female Eagle Scouts on the same date. I have no idea how they would handle someone who selected “boy” and is a current star scout and then selects “girl” on an application change Feb 1, 2019. That will probably happen. I would think Nationals should investigate those cases and take appropriate action if they lied on their original application. As I mentioned, someone admitted to this in a FB comment that this was their plan. After being called out on this by some fairly senior volunteers the person stopped commenting. I don’t think this will end well for those gaming the system.

Correct. The 4th and 13th questions in the FAQ also cover it.

https://voiceofscouting.org/national-commissioner-charles-dahlquist-transgender-policy-change https://www.nccs-bsa.org/pdf/letters/2017.1.30FAQ.pdf

I don’t think BSA is doing that as they still allow COs to make the call. You have your freedom to teach you kids your beliefs regarding gay and transgender scouts. And while BSA continues to allow COs to discriminate against transgender and gay scouts, I can continue to teach my own kids that discrimination against LGBTQ is not appropriate. I don’t see BSA taking sides on this one... they are letting COs to determine what is appropriate for their own scouts.

To be clear there will be an issue BSA will have to address. The first “girl” Eagle Scout. There was a FB post where a parent registered his daughter as a boy. It sounds like she doesn’t identify as a boy but the parent selected this to get her into Boy Scouts. Now when girls are allowed it they may change her to a girl (or that is her plan). So now “she” can be well ahead of other girls in scouting. I think BSA should simply come out with a date for first girl Eagles so this behavior/dishonesty is not awarded... but I do see this as an infrequent issue coming.

This assumes gender identity is a choice. While I 100% agree that nothing permanent should be done for children under 18, I don’t agree that gender identity or sexual orientation is a choice. I didn’t choose to be heterosexual or identify as a male. I’ve met transgender teens and I can tell you their life is not easy. If it was a choice I believe they would definitely not choose to be transgender... they simply are. I think our understanding of the brain is in its infancy. Add in epigenetics and impact on fetal development from the chemical environment of the amniotic fluid and we are only at the beginning of understanding human development.

No, because most linked Troops would only need about 10% of the equipment and a Scout is helpful.

No, I wouldn’t help. The Troop I would want my daughter (and son) in would be a linked Troop... so I would help start one of those. At most I would give some guidance to the leaders looking to start the unit.

Cascade Pacific Council has hired a Family Scout Director. They have a plan to create 50 Girl Troops by Feb 1. From what I can tell, the council is really focusing on the strategy and plan to add volunteers and help COs prepare for this change. The councils that really take the lead and help COs navigate these waters will do well. The councils who don’t may have a mess on their hands.

I would also say they need to stop wasting energy claiming this is not a coed program. It reminds me of episode where Jerry Seinfeld continuously corrects everyone who called his bag a “purse” and telling them it was a “European Carryall”. Eventually it was stolen and he called a police officer over... after trying to explain the proper name he gave up and yelled it’s a purse! So much time and energy is being wasted by Nationals claiming this isn’t coed. It’s a purse...now let’s see how we can make this work.

My understanding is that the handbook is correct but the FAQ that went out about Family Scouting was wrong. I’ve seen screen shots of both.

I’ve seen and heard of units like this before. I rarely would recommend lone scouting.... but that would be better than this. Document and report this Troop and get out. The lessons he is learning are not good ones. Ideally, find another Troop or even leave scouting completely if needed. “Summer Camp is supposed to be at least a little fun.” Scouting should be a great time and memory for youth. Yes, at times it is tough and during that time you many not think of it as fun, but most of it is and even the tough times end up being great lessons. I see no benefit of your son continuing with this Troop based on what you summarized.

I don’t agree with them extending G2SS to interactions with scouts outside of scouting unless that is your only relationship with that youth. Even then, I would have to probably used different language. Something like, “G2SS is a great way to ensure youth safety and we recommend following it with scouts outside of scouting events. If you have an activity with scouts that you would like to violate G2SS, don’t be cute and call it non-scouting... as we will find out and hunt you down. If you happen to be family friends with the scout (or have other non scout non weird relationship with them) G2SS is only a recommendation but feel free to have a beer while showing them how to shoot a bottle with a 22 over a lake at dusk.” Ok, I’m not a lawyer but something along those lines....

I understand what they are getting at. Some pedophile adult leader says the 1 on 1 contact with a scout youth was at a non scouting event so it doesn’t count as a YPT violation. The problem I have is that when they expand G2SS so much and add so many rules it makes it very difficult to run a unit (especially smaller ones). You will have two scenarios. One... leaders start ignoring G2SS completely as it has become the equivalent of the 4 pages of warnings in your lawnmower engine manual. They may refer to a few sections for guidance but don’t take the book to heart. Two...leaders follow it to the letter of the law. Trips and meetings are cancelled due to insufficient leadership. Leaders drop out as they feel their life outside of scouting is now being monitored. Etc. Neither makes scouting safer but it does help give Nationals an out in any possible mishap that could occur.

And people wonder how Boy Scout camps could be so expensive to maintain...

That program is “Scouts BSA”. I think there were very clear that the program for girls would be identical to Boys... they said that multiple times. It would just be a parallel program. What they also said (or at least implied) was that the existing program wouldn’t be impacted. By changing the name of the existing Boy Scout program to Scouts , one could argue that is where they went astray.

You typically don’t have to buy the uniform and book every year.... so you may want to say 1/3 of that cost for an annual estimate. I’m not sure what you do for fundraisers but many families end up kicking in on those. There is also FOS that many but clearly not all families pay, but you could add in that cost. To put it in perspective, my local YMCA overnight camp (1 week) is $770 ... if you can’t afford the full fee of $875 (my kids don’t go).

Our Pack and Troop CO does not have a building. Our Pack stores it’s equipment at various leaders’ homes and we meet at an the elementary school where our scouts are primarily recruited from. We also meet at another public building for den meetings. Unfortunately the costs add up (~$3 k per year just for meeting space). Our Troop stores most of its equipment in a Trailer located at the Quartermasters home. I believe they then meet at the public school as well.

The switch from pins to urns at 100 years of service ... https://www.inthelighturns.com/life-s-trail-boy-scout-light-oak-urn.html

Just sent you private message with my Pack email address. I think our scouts would love to correspond with scouts from the UK.