Armymutt

I think you get out of the OA what you put into it, like most things in life. If you view it as a chance to get a new patch for your uniform, then that's what it will be - a harder version of eBay. If you view it as a vehicle for networking with Scouts from other troops, you're likely to get more. If you take the time to sit down with the ceremonial texts, read them, and think about them, you'll understand that the organization is about servant leadership. As a youth, my chapter was small in number and large in geography. It wasn't super active simply because most of us didn't have transportation, and we were spread out across 4 countries. As an adult, my chapter covers about half a small city. We meet monthly. I don't know that our lodge is going about things the right way, especially when it comes to improving camping skills and whatnot. There are some things that probably need to be modified. Our Fall Fellowship was so packed with overlapping events that none were very effective. I'm relatively new to the organization, so I don't want to be the guy that walks in and starts upsetting things. I'm going to note my observations and make recommendations, and see where that goes.

This is our setup in a nutshell - no to all three. Luckily, we now have a guy in charge of the youth ministry who recognizes that we are part of his program and wants to represent us to the parish council. The very minimum goal is covering adult registration fees. The funny thing is that we have to have the Safe Environment Training, which is YPT on steroids, yet we're treated more like facility users with a blurb on the webpage. We're working on becoming more visible, but it's difficult with only 1 family that is a member of the church.

Tonight was an example of our precarious situation. An hour before the meeting, the other family texted that they had a COVID symptoms case and weren't coming until the kid got tested. They tried to cancel everyone else, but I fixed that as quick as possible for most of them. Our guy who is becoming the Webelos DL also bailed for an unknown reason. We decided to put the kids in the ga ga ball pit and made it a parents meeting. We brought a laptop and set it up with a mobile hotspot. The parents who hadn't finished youth applications submitted them. The Tiger DL designee filed his application. We then talked popcorn, and then I pulled out my Pack leader MTOE (modified table of organization and equipment - because most of us are Army). I laid it out - you got a couple of choices - get involved, or we don't have a program. People were rather shocked that two people were doing the work of 8. Signed up an outdoor activities chair - my wife's friend and their first meeting. Sent everyone a copy with a priority of fill listing and gave them 2 weeks to figure out what they can do. I think we are likely to get better results from the dads - all Soldiers - than the moms.

You're assuming there are other willing and qualified volunteers. The church barely realizes that we are part of their ministry. The diocese is slightly better. Church - can't sell popcorn at the bazar. Can't sell outside after Mass. Got the last one rectified with the new CC. No one in the parish is tripping over themselves to spend time with the scouts. Even the KofC is hurting.

It's a CO thing. Some don't allow for OA. Ours doesn't allow for unrelated adults.

It's not a question of curtailing some of the program - the entire thing will die. My family funded the entire program last year - bought the PWD cars, paid for the B&G facilities, bought all of the adventure loops and rank patches. My wife has had enough of working 50 hours a week and then doing all the CC work, plus part of the fundraiser, membership, and major events chair jobs. She's done at the end of the year if we don't get people helping out.

Bylaws state that all adults must have a child in the pack. Only exception is the COR. There's a big difference between a troop and a pack.

Let's wargame this. What opportunities are available for predation for someone taking on jobs that do not involve contact with kids? I would think there are far more opportunities for predation at a meeting than there are by driving to a Scout Shop to pick up awards, or by conducting reconnaissance to find us places to hike, or coordinating popcorn sales with parents, etc. That seems a bit of a leap to me.

What standards? We aren't bringing in people who don't have kids in the unit.

That's a slippery slope fallacy. We're more of a "get the easy job first" kind of unit. Can't have a unit if you expect 4 people to run everything. Which is worse, a parent filling a small role or not having a unit for the kids that need Scouting the most?

We have it in our by-laws, with some exceptions - spouse deployed, single parent family with no supporting adults. It's just really insulting when a stay-at-home parent tells 4 people who work full time that they don't have time, but expect a quality program, and then they sit and play on their phone during the meetings.

Not really. For the bulk of the small committee jobs, there's no need to become a registered leader. Any parent can be the popcorn person. Any parent can find places to go for outings. Any parent can go to the scout shop and buy awards. Any parent can find a place to hold the B&G and coordinate who brings what. For the positions that involve direct contact with the kids, sure, but for the bulk of what we need, not at all. At this point, the pack will fold at the end of the year if no one else starts picking up some of the load.

This past year, our pack has been operated by 4 people, with 2 doing all the heavy lifting. Those 4 are a university professor who often has evening jobs, a physical therapy assistant student who has now graduated and is working full time, a clinical pharmacist, and a veterinarian. Somehow, they have managed to find time in their schedule - one family has 2 kids under 7 and the other has 3 from 7 to 12 - to perform every single job needed to make the pack run - Cubmaster, Committee chair, treasurer, Den Leaders. For some reason, no one else is able to help out. Luckily, this past week we have recruited another family where the mom wants to be the secretary and the dad wants to be the ACM. That will help a bit, but their son is a Webelos. I'm not asking for much. Looking for someone to manage advancement - pull a report once a month and go buy the awards. Need someone to find outdoor activities and promote them. Someone else to manage membership and registration. Another to handle fundraising. We have a mom who spends all day on Facebook promoting downtown businesses, but can't find time to be the PR chair for the pack!

Got inspired in one of my lectures today.

I know this thread is old, but the language of the Order is masculine, for better or worse. The second degree is called Brotherhood. Everyone is called a brother, regardless of gender. The only place I have seen any modifications to this is in The Drum, where Tischitanissohen (Jay Dunbar) has coined the term "akinship" as a substitute for brotherhood. Changing the names of the principals to reflect would require changing part of WWW as well, for consistency.

I'm still confused by this thought process. Maybe it stems from a misunderstanding of "OA elections" and "OA elections". Election to select candidates for the Ordeal are a unit function. They are supervised by the OA members, who may or may not be members of the troop. OA elections to chose the leadership within the OA is not a unit function, and doesn't happen on unit time. I'm not clear on how you think that the election of candidates to the OA from the ranks of a unit's Scouts would happen outside the unit.

That seems to be the current methodology in PH. I'm an outsider looking in on all of this. I'm a veterinarian by trade. I'm just doing this to get closer to retirement from the Army. Hardest questions I've had to answer in the program is, "What's your public health interest?" Umm....hmm....food safety and food protection. Neither of which are discussed, nor understood by any of the faculty. From what I've seen over the past year, everything is geared toward finding a public health reason to advance your political point of view. It's really exhausting for someone with a science background. This article provides some evidence of how Scouting can be an asset for inner city kids. Look past the political parts and focus on the quotes from the kids and SM. https://www.city-journal.org/html/why-boy-scouts-work-11848.html The issue I'm running up against is how to make Scouting work for the rural poor. Cities should be easier, if you can get the timing, locations, and volunteers right. In rural areas, it's more complicated. If the kids don't have transportation, getting to a meeting is impossible.

Depends on when you were in school. Today, "public health" is interpreted more broadly than Congress interprets the term "interstate commerce." Anything that is a social determinant of health is considered public health. Off the top of my head, potential policy solutions would be things like requiring all Medicaid providers to allocate sufficient funds to significantly offset the cost of participation in your organizations and providing tax incentives to people who volunteer to be leaders in these organizations.

I'm writing a paper for a class. Originally, I was going to do opioids, but thought that I'd have more passion, if not information, for Scouting. The goal of this is to eventually develop a policy brief that proposes some solution to a public health issue with an equity or social justice aspect. To me, youth programs in general, and Scouting in particular have great potential as public health programs. I'm looking at the aspects of mental health, criminal involvement, family dynamics, role models, and social-economic status as the factors that can be improved through a robust Scouting program. The idea of creating opportunities to build skills over time, mentoring, and an orientation toward service provides evidence that greater support of these programs is needed. I've identified barriers to participation, including program costs, shortages of volunteers, lack of facilities, and peer perception of "coolness". Thoughts? Inputs? I'd really like to hear from folks in a variety of areas. My Scouting experience was Air Force brats, a few suburban white kids of various economic situations - trailers to huge houses in the same troop, and now a group of middle class kids from various races, but essentially the same living conditions.

How so?

From the Army perspective, you have to be performing your normal duties at the camp. That knocks out most of the people, other than medical types. I'm a veterinarian, so I could possibly use the food safety angle. The reality is that I'll be retired before my oldest is a Tenderfoot, so won't really matter at that point.

That's what I figured. It's funny that they say 500 hours and or 3 years, then cite a suicide hotline worker or Scout leader. I think a Scout leader would rack up more hours quickly vs a hotline operator.

We live in a military community and I have a Soldier for a DL and I want to make sure he is recognized both within Scouting and at work. When calculating hours toward the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, how do you count camping trips? He is volunteering the entire time, right? If it's a Cuboree, that's 38 hours easily.

Wow, where was this? We're in North Carolina and our Pack is chartered to a Catholic church. One of my concerns is that people will see that and not come to us. Never witnessed any overt anti-Catholicism, but that's not saying it doesn't exist. The husband of one of the ladies in the parish office was told to remove his high school jacket at a local college because it was from a Catholic school. That was years ago though.

We held an Open House with the PWD track and some cars, stomp rockets, and other activities set up. CC had a table with information for parents. I made a flyer in Power Point and blasted it on every local social media site I could find, starting 6 weeks out. We got a last minute spot at a local school that was having an open house the week before. Spent the hours before it getting flyers printed at council and then meeting our DE two towns away to get the flyers. A DL and myself, along with our 4 kids went to the school, found an empty table and set cute aggressive kids to talk to every person that walked into the school. Handed out 75 flyers. We had 6 kids come to the open house from all of that. Two came back last week, ready to join. We also picked up 4 kids due to military moves. Over all, our pack went from 9 kids to 14 in a week. We may lose 1 next week when I explain to his mom that either she is the Bear DL or he doesn't have one - only Bear we have. From the new parents, I have a Pack Secretary, an ACM, and a Tiger DL who might have to miss meeting due to Army work and Tiger ADL who doesn't want an official title, but is willing to be really involved. I'll take it. Now to start assigning other roles to other parents - like B&G planner and PWD Planner.