PinkPajamas

Our roundtable this month focused on Webelos to Scout transitions. One recommendation was to have an Assistant Scoutmaster visit Webelos 1 dens in the area for parent information meetings and making sure the den leader knows how Scouts, BSA runs and where to find information on the program.

Will it work? idunno.

They make a plastic holder for the badges so you don't have to sew them on, it hangs off the button like a fun patch. Might be a cheap solution until she earns the Webelos badge.

Are there any instances or types of fundraising (besides popcorn and camp cards) where our Pack wouldn't need to fill out a Unit Money Earning Application? Members of our committee believe we only submit the form if we're advertising a fundraiser for scouting or using BSA logos. The information I've found seems clear that we submit the form for all fundraising.

Well I survived the first weekend of lifeguard training and have some nasty bruising to show for it. Now I just need to memorize everything in the American Red Cross Lifeguarding Manual and BSA Aquatics Supervision manual 😬 

This was given to me when I first expressed an interest in being a leader.

Most of my wtf moments have to do with girls' clothing choices for activities outdoors. First one was partially my fault, I told the girls to wear closed toed shoes or boots...I did not explain what type of boots.... had an 8 year old show up in heeled thigh high plastic boots that can best be described as suited for the movie Pretty Woman. Also had a girl wear opened toe high heeled sandals to our fire skills day at camp....after a very detailed explanation of proper footwear. 

In my excitement for lifeguard training this weekend I started looking at all the aquatics patches that can be earned. I found them in the guide to insignia but it only shows an example of boxer style bathing suits. Is there a proper placement for women's one piece suits, other than the generic "left" or "right" side description given?

Canned bake beans! Nothing more 4th of July-y than a side dish of canned bake beans. 

From my experience the problem is the younger girls are really restricted in what they can do outdoors, no over night camping or watercraft until brownie (wolf age) and no tent camping until they're Juniors (weblos) so if you are an outdoors camping inclined leader you're bored for several years and will most likely leave, leaving the crafting cookie crew running the troops building seniority and moving on to greater unit and council wide positions. Very few district level people I've met were "outdoorsy". 

We're at the cub level and we have the brightest neon orange known to man. I love it for tracking kids. 

I find it baffling, if you pull out of every generic "scout" event aren't you tell the general public your organization isn't scouts? 

Our council created an uproar this weekend by posting on Facebook that they were pulling out of a day at legoland that was advertised as an incentive for selling cookies. These screen shots are from the councils official account or members of our local council/leadership teams. 

My favs are being photographed next to a bsa Scout “devalues” their brand and being in the park with bsa scouts is a “safety” concern....a public amusement park...that was open to the general public that day...but bsa scouts are a safety issue 🙄

To earn the Gold Award girls must finish either two Senior/Ambassador Journeys OR their Silver Award and one Senior/Ambassador Journey

Girls and their troop leaders or parents must attend a Gold Award Workshop

Do their project

There is nothing about cookie sales. Furthermore those journey's can be signed off by any parent or troop leader there isn't a merit badge type person making sure they were done to any standard. We plan on re-signing our daughter up (if she wants it) for one year when she's older to get this award. 

Edited to add that you don't "earn" advancement in Girl Scouts, you age into it, so if you sign an 11th grader up for girl scouts they're at the highest level. In my opinion this is the difference between Eagle and Gold. You have to meet the requirements for every level before applying to be an Eagle Scout not just sign your kid up at Life Scout. 

It couldn't be too hard to just have a digital application in scoutbook. 

I think this article is in line with their no uniform policy. Girls complained about their terribly regressive and unpractical uniforms and instead of modernizing, GSUSA got rid of uniforms. They think other organizations should/would listen and respond in a similar fashion. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re seeing this surface again because GSUSA thinks no uniforms/no dress code is a selling point when compared to BSA. I remember complaining up a storm every time I had to put on my brown skirt and tights with the ugly orange bow tie 🤢completely different than my daughter who thought her blue uniform was awesome and is jumping at the bit to go to  the bsa shop and get her tan and green. I’m sure the thinking is girls hated our uniforms therefor they’ll hate all uniforms.

On 4/17/2019 at 8:17 PM, Cburkhardt said:

Let’s have some fun.  I predict that the November 2022 membership numbers will reflect that Scouts BSA will have net grown boys very slightly compared to year end 2018 — effectively replacing the 65% of Church of JC of LDS Members I think will depart.  And, I believe we will have no less than 200,000 girl members.  This is because we will no longer be carrying cultural war baggage and the family scouting approach will have been proven to draw membership.  Okay folks, what do you think?  Don’t just make wild predictions.  Have rationale for your views.

Depends on the youth. For a very long time being in scouting wasn't cool. Adults can't change that, in fact if they try they'll just make it worse. If there are social media influencing youth that take a positive, pro scouting attitude to their 250,000- 1M followers....if older youth that younger kids respect are visibly enjoying scouting...if youth start live streaming their scouting adventures.... The potential for a unifying cultural experience is there, and there's not much left that everyone can do and talk about together.

Prediction. When LDS leaves those numbers will be the floor for male membership. Three years out I wouldn't be surprised if a third of all Scouts, BSA members were female. Cub scouts is trickier because the GSUSA at that level is popular, but if there were 1.2 M cub scouts in 2017 and Oct 2018 numbers of 40,000 girls in cub scouts...I would bet 200,000 female cub scouts. 

6 hours ago, Treflienne said:

Does that mean they'll be crossing over to scouts in two years time?  Hopefully by then there will already be a troop going that they can join.

Consider critical mass.  Are there other girls troops starting in your town or school district?  It might make sense to join with them instead of getting another new troop going.  (Or maybe there will be enough interested girls for another new troop.)

About this "stated commitment to start a linked female troop".  What is backing this statement?  General goodwill?  A willingness on the part of the troop committee to help with the administration of the new troop?  Experienced scouters with daughters who want to be scouts?   A daughter who really wants to be a scout can be *very* motivating to an adult to put the time into volunteering.

Our pack crosses AOLs over in January so about 18 months out. There are no girl troops, that I am aware of, currently up and running in our immediate area, from chatting with people it seems like everyone is waiting for the first batch of Weblos/AOL to cross over in Jan. 2020 to start the troops. 

In our case the AOL den leader is a heavily involved scouter with leadership positions in both the pack, boy troop, council, and a personal relationship with several of the girls in the den. Our COR has talked about "when we get the girl troop up and running". And casual conversations with troop leadership where phrases like "we're absolutely going to have a linked troop" were tossed around. All the girls in both the Weblos/AOL dens have parents in registered leadership positions either in the pack or boys' troop, so I feel confident it will happen. But even if it falls through, no matter where these girls go, it's going to be a "new" troop. 

Knowing that some areas are having an easier time recruiting at the Weblos rank and that the girls who are joining are from the same friend group is incredibly helpful information.  

@Treflienne everything you said. I thought as a leader I could be the change I wanted to see in the organization but I realized they like the "social club" college prep direction of the program. They truly believe they have the best program and don't see a need for change. The best recruitment tool BSA has is their program materials compared to GSUSA's. I don't see how any family interested in "scouting" could read through a journey book and think its the best program for their daughter. 

9 hours ago, Treflienne said:

Non-disclosure of what?  the contents of the volunteer toolkit?

 

Their "program materials" and roster. I understand not sharing a roster but laugh every time I think about BSA wanting GSUSA program materials. The terrible program material is WHY girls leave. My third grade daughter has zero interest in reading stories about the adventures of a cartoon Brownie Elf. We spent this year preparing the girls for a camping trip earning the "outdoor journey" (which is thrown together so haphazardly I feel silly even telling the girls its a journey) and I had to rely heavily on outside sources.

Slightly off topic.

My daughter and two other girls just crossed over to Weblos. We have three girls in an AOL den. The troop our pack shares a charter with has stated a commitment to start a linked female troop. Do you have any advice on things we could be doing to make sure this troop has a good solid start? Besides helping the AOL den find two other girls. What do new troops need from their incoming members?

That question was on the parent/troop leader/girl surveys last year as well. If they're trying to figure out numbers of dual registered girls I have to assume the number wasn't high enough for them to try and retain them. Our service unit/council is hostile to dual registered families; from wanting us to sign non disclosure agreements as troop leaders, request for us to report "boy scouts" at GSUSA events, mandates that we cannot participate in any events where BSA is also participating, and constant negative talk about the BSA program around girls. 

It was really shocking this year, because these are good women who care deeply about improving the lives of girls..... as long as it's not through BSA. My daughter picked up on it at our first multi troop fall camp out, a bunch of girls running around giggling that "boy scouts" were going to try and "steal" girls away from girl scouts. They killed Girl Scouts for my daughter that weekend, she felt she had to pick a side and once she picked it she had to justify that decision, Girl Scouting became uncool and Cub Scouting cool. Up until that weekend she was super proud to be a "dual" scout, now she's a Cub Scout and mom makes her go to Girl Scouts. 

I'm really interested in watching the membership numbers for both organizations. GSUSA has had issues with girls dropping the program after Brownies (Bear equivalent) for years. It lines up perfectly with Weblos and I wonder how many girls will try Weblos instead of sports or dropping out of scouting completely. 

I jokingly refer to my daughter as a dual scout, she's in both GSUSA and Cub Scouts. There is a lot of confusion with our extended family and 6 months in most still say she's in Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, despite my constant corrections of "Cub Scouts". If there are people purposely using "boy scouts" as some sort of political stance I suspect they wont be around much longer or will slowly change into the speaking norms of those around them. 

4 hours ago, Longhaired_Mac said:

 

What will help most with his anxiety is familiarity in tasks. Knowing all the steps to each task he will be expected to perform while at camp. Now obviously he can't know the info to be taught in Merit badge classes, that would defeat their purpose. But you can find out from the SM what daily chores are required by the Scouts and then practice them with your son. Will he be sleeping in a cabin, Adirondack tent, or a troop tent? Find out which and teach him the skills to setting them up and taking them down. Packing and unpacking his personal supplies so he understands how his pack works. As a boy my troop would have races to see who could get their tents up in 5 minutes or less at each of the weekly meeting for the month before camp. The repetition made it less work at camp and served us better when setting up in the rain or dark on other camp-outs. The repetition for your son will create order and focus in his thoughts, pressing his anxiety to the back for awhile. Also prep for the social anxiety aspect. Have play-dates with other scouts his age that you know are going to camp. Have them bonding with each other so they act as a support system for each other while away. And if you include the other scouts in your camping prep, well the repetition wont hurt them either. Do verbal quizzes on the info while in the car or shopping.

This is how I personally deal with anxiety. For most trips I go on I look the place up on Google Maps, see if someone has posted videos of what they did while there, see if there is a schedule of events or menu from years prior. I'll even visit the social media pages of the people running the event so I can recognize their faces. 

His therapist should really be able to help pinpoint the trigger for the anxiety, once you know that it'll be easier to make a plan to help him. 

If I had to argue with someone over it I would say that "show" doesn't have to mean I'm the one doing it, I could "show" you someone else doing the work. Demonstrate means I'm doing it.