Jameson76

They will put bling and sequins on hats, will be simple

For us they are sort of like a rare solar eclipse. They come by, introduce themselves, then we never see them again. As far as I can tell they have never directly contacted the SM, CC, or any adults. They have (and I have seen 2 visits in 10 years) only come by, stayed about 30 minutes, and we never hear from them again. We presume there is some sort of write up or report that is filed at the district, then filed at the council, then filed at regional, then filed at National. Sort of a vision of Soviet era paperwork being shuttled along and boxes checked. In theory commissioners are

I don't think you can say cute...but I have not taken the recently updated YPT, so not 100% sure

Sort of looks like them FLYER - GIRL BEING INTERVIEWED ON CBS You don't mean (SHOCKED FACE) that the whole thing was STAGED!!!

Odd that literally everything matches but their shoes...no doubt an oversight

Good points We did not cook on the MLK trip. Stayed on the Alabama and got meals there. Then ate on the NAS base in Florida for some meals. Did the Battleship and camped on the NAS recreational area, all meals, free Naval museum, played on the beach, $50 per person. Scouts had to pay for their own lunch on the way there and back. If we had included mileage charges, would have more than doubled the cost Gifts in kind are your friend

No doubt they are already have.

How did you spend that much for Patriots Point? Curious did you charter a bus? We do one long trip each January. Good thing is leaders / parents that drive traditionally absorb the mileage. We did 900 plus miles with 13 cars on MLK this year., so I personally know the cost. More mileage to deduct I guess.

To be clear, at this point, Girls cannot join your troop nor in the immediate future would they. Yes that will no doubt be subject to change, but wanted to level set (and I know you were being dramatic) Agree 100%. I am amazed that the National BSA office and board made this momentous decision, and literally had no real workable implementation plan. Anyone who has spent any actual time at the unit level can come up with multiple scenarios that need to be resolved. Admittedly they may not have the answers yet, but the shallowness and lack of even acknowledging there may be questions

You gotta look those folks in the face and clearly state

It it is really large print and denotes Family Scouting If BSA National had only meant CUBS,then logically it would have said that. That which is not specifically excluded is assumed to be included

Spot on. Main message after the announcement from BSA National, Council pros, etc has been if you do not support the change, then maybe you were a "conditional" scout. So yes, that is the subtext of the message included within the change. We are doing this with you or without you

Yeah...that big giant FAMILY is not really clear what it applies to. We can infer and assume all we want but (as has been well noted) the message is a bit muddled. The decision was made to admit girls to the program, rather than sell that, let's sell families, everybody loves that!!

Been going downhill since they discontinued Blacksmithing, Stalking, and Taxidermy merit badges. Those were the ones that toughened them up.

I would slightly differ in that view. BSA National and pretty much every interview CSE has had emphasized and at times over emphasized family. He talks about families doing things together, that families want programs they can do together, and that scouting can be the program they can do together. The surveys tell them family is key and they want to do things. As a family. One can infer that if the new families that come into Cubs with the family transition to Scouts, the expectation is the family will come along. Those of us that are dinosaur troops, all male leaders on outings, us

While it may be great it is also required for any outings, and for good reasons. Note that Cubs and Scouts are two separate programs. What is great for Cubs and 6 - 10 years olds does not translate to working with 11 - 17 years olds

To be clear, as of 2/13/2018 and at 10:04 EST, as we may understand the basic intent of the decision to allow Girls into the Cubs and Scouts; Cub units do have the option to remain single gender. Also as faintly outlined there will be Girl Troops, so current Male only Boy Scout Troops will remain as such, so not really an option for Girls to join a current troop. That is of course subject to change based on a potential future survey given to people not involved in scouting at this time at the whim of BSA National (results will not actually be presented to the general public only the feed

All very accurate The final point (6) is the one that BSA National has not done really any work on. They are facing declining membership. Rather than fully understand why some units are successful and grow or at the very least stay healthy, and others decline, we get this broad brush solution of "the family" and we are not meeting the needs of "the family" That is at best a straw man that anyone with any real world experience in Scouting knows is BS. The comments by our CSE that this will help by being a "one stop" program ring hollow. If BSA holds to single gender dens, then eve

So if they can profit say 30% per leader ($89) they only need like 2.4 million leaders to attend to handle the balloon payment due in a few years

We have 6 patrols and once you are assigned to a patrol, that is your patrol for your tenure. Note we have about 90 scouts, so roughly 15 assigned per patrol. That being said, there are they older scouts who may be not as active, and we split up the new scouts each year based on actual activity to keep a good core group. For most outings we have 6 patrols that function. Typically about 40 attend each outing. Our lake outing had 70 with about 20 leaders in and out, so 90+ in camp for the period. Some of the outings two patrols may combine so we have 6 -8 scouts working together. In th

I would have to agree. There are many many activities that troops can do, not saying WDW is a bad one, but it would be pricey. We try to keep our outdoor trips and campouts to those things a Scout's family can do, but may not want to do as a family. Backpacking, kayaking on a river, canoeing in the swamp, biking on a rails to trails, primitive camping at a State Park, etc. Each year we do a trip that is longer, but still has some outdoors or adventure elements. Staying overnight on a museum ship, touring some of the military museums, ziplining. Also we work very hard to keep the cost

Interesting to put in something about the Scout law. IMHO while in theory correct, the challenge is that this is not what many of the Boys and Leaders signed up for. BSA National has substantially changed the rules of the game. To put out that if one does not support this one is not upholding the Scout Oath and Law is not really accurate If you agree to be involved in something (job / purchase / volunteer), are committed and then someone from outside what you are doing says you have to do that plus all this other stuff, that changes what you agreed to get involved with and by that same