malraux

I also find it to be a weird choice that GSUSA makes it difficult to find a girl scout troop to join. You have to send an inquiry to find local troops that are currently accepting girls and hope there's an opening. For all the tech issues with the BSA, the beascout pin system does work.

Weirdly, we have the same situation; the 4th and 2nd grade GSUSA troops folded so several of those girls transferred over.

My impression of the webelos program is that it is intended as a 1.5-2 year process. You can earn the pins in any order, with the general idea that you earn the web core ones in the first year to get that rank and then the aol core ones the next year, but you can work on aol elements while a 4th grader.

Totally anecdotal, but that's pretty consistent with my pack's experience. We're having pretty good recruitment numbers, still trying to pin down if any kids aren't coming back.

I'm pretty sure that within scout book you can. (and I think that internet advancement would also let you do so). When I was converting my pack's records to scout book, I had to add a bunch of missed things, like bobcat awards, to get everything correct. The system let me add bobcat for previous years. That said, does it matter?

But the scouting page or the be a scout page are more gender neutral. Its really the sign up for more info about scouts bsa starting in February that has a prominent girls only look. But if I’m a boy, I’m looking to sign up now.

To a large extent, the free range ideas are about properly assessing risks. So its recognizing that the drive to a trailhead is often as or more dangerous than the hike itself. Also the goal should be how to handle dangerous situations, ie being prepared.

Or properly buckle up while in the car.

But in modern times, kids are relatively safe from things like abduction.

But for the LNT stuff at my wood badge, we actually went out to have semi-practical stuff done by the Venture crew... Some people really get the wrong ideas from WB.

We just had our recruitment night, and had pretty fair turnout. A lot of higher grade youth, both boys and girls.

http://www.patchtown.com/catherderspatrolpatch.aspx

That seems to be adding a new requirement to receiving rank, which is something you shouldn't be doing. I could also see it getting rather problematic if you end up with scouts on the spirit board that have a dislike of a younger scout.

I went as a wolf den leader, but I had pretty substantial scouting experience when I was younger. That was the right time for me as it gave me a pretty good recontextualization of that knowledge. It certainly showed me that my troop from way back then wasn't as scout led as it should have been, and gave a good exemplar of a well functioning troop. Certainly for me early in my scoutering career was right, but I could see it being wrong for others.

I’m sure it can work in some situations, but it also means that if it starts going bad, it’s hard for someone to fix.

There’s also a theme of 1 family having multiple positions within the key 3.

But this doesn’t seem like a recent development …

Reading the study, I don't know that BSA policy on transgendered individuals would have much effect. The process described doesn't apply to someone with childhood gender dysphoria, but when a close group of friends all come out together, usually as part of a maladaptive response to trauma. That's something that could happen regardless of rules, nor do rules really prevent that from occurring. The study also isn't a prevalence study or anything else.

To what end? Sure, some people get to vent at Surbaugh directly, but does that help improve the implementation? Is the hope to get him to change his mind? Would that really help retain any members that are leaving because of this, or help attract new members?

Its also likely fairly regional in the different opinions, so hard for anyone to estimate its exact popularity. I'm also appreciative of the idea that sometimes organizations have to change even its not what a majority of its current members want.

Its weird when the reddit community is the reasonable and uplifting one...

can you handle it when not everyone joins in your rage?

There's also the recurring complaint of not discussing plans for the exact plan of how the whole girls thing will work, but when the magazine starts talking about that subject suddenly it's too much on the plan for girls. there are times when I feel like the point of this forum is for people to complain.

This sounds like someone way back had a cute idea that got formalized for no good reason.

I'm big on people being able to pick their own identity and label, but yeah I would agree that labeling isn't the clearest. I also don't know how best to discuss it in this sort of forum as its kinda none of my business.