Jameson76

Patrol Advisor should be doing just that, advising. We put the crossovers in a new patrol for the spring, but come fall they roll up into the existing patrols. The older scouts are more than happy to pass on the meal planning and cooking

Shockingly National BSA may not in fact know what is best

Possibly, and most likely if the leaders at the BOR let it develop. The scout may be nervous for many reasons. Sitting in an unfamiliar area and talking with adults they are not really familiar with may be well out of their comfort zone. Good probability they will have similar instances occurring in their life as they grow older. Having the Scout confront that, deal with it, be successful in their BOR will be some personal growth. It does become a balance. I have been on some with really nervous scouts. With one as we asked some basic questions, he got flustered, stumbled through, sort of started to panic. We stopped the BOR, told him to take a breath, go grab some water (we were at an outing) and come back in 5 minutes so we could start again. He did and was much better, gained some confidence.

That would lead to a somewhat interesting EBOR. I guess the discussion would be "why?". Not sure as a member of the EBOR that would preclude passing them on the EBOR. I guess if the Scout chose to refuse to say the pledge, one or more of the EBOR members could at that point decline to continue to participate in the board if they so chose. One form of protest is as good as another. At that point the district could determine if there were enough members to continue, give the unit an opportunity to source more members, or reschedule.

There is a lot going on here. The interrogation alone in the tent, if just a Scout and the leader could be another whole issue. Obviously there were some bad decisions made by the Scouts. That in and of itself is not shocking. Key is your son needs to take responsibility for his actions. Whether he learns and grows from this is purely on him, sounds like he does understand their actions were not correct. Key is to make sure he is truly sorry and willing to make amends, not just sorry for being caught Separate issue 1, and this in no way excuses what happened, is the concern over "special privileges" for one scout. In general this can lead to bad feelings and the Scout being ostracized by his peers. Unless there the Scout has special needs. Not sure how to best approach that challenge in light of what seems to have occurred Separate issue 2, and in no way does this mitigate what happened, is possibly the handling by the unit. That may take some deeper discussion. If as you indicated the Scout who was the victim in the issue had his parent, or parents at camp, they may have had influence in the tenor of the investigation. This may be a calm meeting to be had and bring the concern to troop committee. The unit seems to have needed to address the issue. The question may be was it handled correctly and with concern for all parties. Your final question is but is this the procedure to punish boys in this situation? For half a year? Could be yes to both questions. Certainly it appears that Scouts were doing something and it possibly escalated beyond the original intention. That needs to be addresses so there should be some consequences. The six months does not seem at the surface to be out of proportion to the events Last advice as noted may be to have a calm and wide ranging conversation with the SM, committee, leaders at camp, etc.

Well...technically we don't either, I was being kind. Honestly that was our lowest attended events. We dropped the Spring camporee about 8 years ago, during planning the Scouts asked if they had to go, we said it's up to you guys. The district has a winter event we would do, but honestly has not changed, or been revised, since it started. Has a really cool 20 page guide. The update seems to be changing the date on the cover. During planning last year they asked if we had to attend that, we again said nope, so we went backpacking. Bottom line Scouts were not interested Changing from Camporee to other events - Attendance in that month is up 400% Changing from winter event to backpacking - We doubled the attendance Now...before you comment..."Well maybe if you guys helped plan them, they would be better". That is a valid point. We have discussed that option. Challenge is you have the double edged sword of the OA Cabal and the WB Cult that run these things in our district. I am here to tell you, just the safety overview for the weekend was 30 minutes. It's not like we don't do maybe 30 nights of camping each year, we've got this. So we decided life is too short to fight that battle and went our own way.

That is the truth. We had one leader who had the beading ceremony, took an excruciating 45 minutes. Go get trained, enjoy, but WB is not in fact why we (leaders) are around. But so many adults are involved doing purely adult things and consider that Scouting. Which it is in some cases. Some non unit facing work is needed, like District EBOR, recharter, training, large fundraising, etc. There is however a good deal of adult involvement that merely begets more adult involvement. The rocket thing is a great example of adults who simply do not get it. They are not really there for development of Scouts, they are there to run things RIGHT dang it. We had a camporee where troops handled/manned events. In this case expectation was leaders staffed the events, scouts went and did stuff. Our unit did a station with three events, we gave minimal direction, Scouts figured out what to do, they did stuff, we watched from afar and tallied. Our guys went to some where their feedback to us was, we did , in this case lashing, for 20 minutes, then some old guys yelled at how wrong we were for 20 minutes and made us watch him do it right. We don't do a lot of camporees

Well...they tend to weigh down my speedo...but I'll give it a try

Is that like the Pantomime horse from Monty Python? Literally everything I know about the British I learned from Monty Python episodes.

Interesting you add Oath and Law at BOR and EBOR as an added requirement. We always have the Scouts start the BOR (and EBOR) with the Oath and Law, not as a pass/fail but as a way to set the tone. Same for uniform, not required but encouraged. Same for the handbook, though while not specifically required at the BOR it is needed. Never a test, but they should be prepared to discuss their accomplishment and what they have gained from the advancment

Many topics on 72 hour rule, recent additions of Scouting magazine, etc etc. Real question is what are units doing this fall that is first and foremost FUN and selected and planned by the Scouts in the unit? Most important thing is keeping the OUTING in Scouting For our unit this fall: Outing at the lake with boats, tubing, canoes, swimming Kayaking trek, working with local outfitter Biking on a rails to trails converted train path (25 - 50 miles depending on your stamina) Canyoneering through a State Park gorge, maybe take in a drive-in movie on the Saturday night Webelos visitation outing with skills classes and pioneering fun

Seems if the "activity" was supposed to be interpreted as the whole year (whatever that may be, calendar, school, program, Martian) they should have actually Said that clearly in the G2SS (what's another page when you already have 100+) Defined a year They appear to be making up stuff as they go along

The six months is the minimum time he needs to be a Life Scout. The requirements are that while a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. Also the scout needs a position of responsibility, all the required and number of merit badges to complete the rank. Does your unit have a Life to Eagle coordinator that can assist or give guidance? Also all work MUST be completed prior to his 18th birthday

So - in 10 years with my current troop and and 375 plus meetings I have seem a commissioner twice. Oddly both times they rolled in for a Court of Honor. We are a good sized unit so maybe they ignore us. Always felt the commissioners look really good in theory, not so much in practice.

Sadly it comes down more often to who will step up and actually do the job needed. Many times it's not so much the choice of Mr/Mrs Right and more the case of Mr/Mrs Right Now. The DE is charged with adding more units and scouts, they need a leader and X number of adults and Y number of youth. If you sign up and pay your fees, you are the leader. The professional is not looking for the best leader, they just need A leader. In some cases the CO will be engaged, but often not so much.

Sometimes that is a necessity due to size, in some cases it is someone making their little empire.

I am going to so steal that analogy....

But hey...she's woodbadge trained 😁 Wonder what her critter is (was??) Full disclaimer..never attended WB nor do I plan to. There is likely some good to it, but see waaay too many adults who basically treat the WB experience, staffing, course personage as their contribution to the scouting program when if fact they have not camped with a troop or met an actual scout in years and basically are part of this adult cult of the pink hankie. WB does not make you a scouter. Leading youth in a challenging program and helping them along their journey as you work with them on the trails, in the rain, in the cold, in emergency situations, in trying times, and in a variety of situations to be productive adults, that's what makes you a scout leader. No special knot or tartan scarf needed.

That is not good Our unit is pretty old school I guess. All the key leaders (SM and ASM's) are guys, same with the committee members that regularly attend campouts and summer camps. We have female committee heavily involved with multiple support functions, but none in youth facing roles. We get support from moms (and dads) for driving to and from outings, etc. Not sure what is happening at the district level, that does not impact us. We are the largest troop in district at 100+ (x2 from the next sized one) so we have momentum and resources to do our own thing. That is in fact a blessing.

If a unit has to "force" older Scouts to attend to get a SM conference, the issue of conferences is likely the least of their worries. While we would always welcome more of the older scouts, the key to get them to the outings is to have engaging and fun / challenging outings. If the outing is solely based on advancement, then likely it will drive many away. If the district or council camporees do not get enough attendees, maybe pass on those (yes one could get involved and maybe plan more engaging ones but that is a long play). Key is to do stuff they may not do with their friends and families...backpacking because it's there, hiking back country rugged trails into a gorge because it's fun, getting hauled around the lake on a tube...well because, canoeing in a swamp because seeing alligators maybe 10' away is wicked fun. That is how you get older scouts to attend, not only doing SM conferences there.

It is a interesting study and article. This speaks volumes to peer pressure, also it speaks volumes to what is not known about gender identity and how transgender feelings are formed. One hopes much of this is not like tattoos, they seem really cool when you are 18 - 20....25 years later many wonder what in the world they were thinking.

Many of us not wholly excited about the changes to the program are heavily involved in the program and have been now for many many (oh so many) years. We are running / working in our units day in day out, week in week out, monthly outings, Saturday night campfires, taps being played in the evenings, flag ceremonies, Courts of Honors, meeting with Scouts on advancement, running merit badge sessions, engaging the troop in high adventure, developing leadership among the boys, working to have them in patrols...all the scouting stuff one does out in the mud and the woods. We see the changes as fundamentally altering not the stated aims of the program, but the tenure and tone of the program. To believe that adding girls to the program and that tone and tenure of summer camps or outings if one is doing the Linked troop model, will be same as prior is to deny the obvious. I am not saying it will be necessarily bad, but it will be different from the program I grew up in and the program my son went through. That loss is what we mourn. At this point those of us not wholly excited can continue business as usual. Candidly I feel that in a few short years the separate boy and girl units or the linked models will give way to a full coed program. The pressure from aging girls (and their families) who do not have a unit to move to, or the one they start is new and inexperienced, so they will not be able to earn the Eagle will become a conversation about disparity and unfairness.

And in your case actual field reality comes up against National direction. That direction is Girls and Boys in the same pack but single gender dens. If you do not have enough girls to make a den, then mixed ages in a den. This case you have 1 girl and then only other girls in the pack are 1st graders. Not a good situation if you are seeking to follow the program

But he's got the US Flag behind him....and a blue blazer with the BSA emblem and everything. Seems to be able to spin a tale, I might by a used car from him....

It was sort of all in wasn't it. Maybe a tad bit of overkill. More interesting may have been details on the Philmont recovery plan, information on the Northern Tier fires, what some units did instead of Philmont and how they accomplished that effort, Venture fest at Summit...you know...actual scouting stuff The focus on "Family Scouting" from National sort of reminds me of when you start seeing tons of ads for an upcoming movie. The amount of ads and promotions seems inverse to the actual public demand / interest for the actual content of the movie