Tron

I believe the law being spoken of is the Equal Access Act of 1984.

A lack of good commissioners is an issue. Based on what I am learning about my local commissioner core it sounds like they were all new and once they earned their award of excellence they basically became commissioners on paper or something.

Why is this still pinned?

I think duty rosters are the way to go. It is the only way to show everyone that the distribution of responsibilities is fair. As for rank, I think the rate of achievement is really limited by 2 factors. The enthusiasm of the Scout, and the ability of the Scouts parents to facilitate. If you have a go getter on your hands that is focusing only on Scouting, and the parents are making it happen for the Scout; totally realistic for the Scout to rank up to 1st Class in their first year at the Troop level. I think a properly trained AOL should be able to rank up to Tenderfoot in 2 mont

This is a wild one. I don't think I have enough information to really say what I think happened. If I were investigating this I would want to question any adults that witnessed the initial situation. I would also want to question any adults that witnessed the follow up interaction between the camp master and the SM. I read the response of the district and council as they didn't give a flying F and are now not participating. I just can't believe that; I'm reading this as a YPT scenario during the largest YPT lawsuit in the history of our country. That dog don't hunt. There is a huge

No more like, Venturing is now part of OA, and it gives the Scouts something more to reach for to want to be in the OA.

A lot of good comments so far. It is tough to add; however, I think the top issue is that most Scouters have no idea how the program is supposed to run. I think the next highest issue is that Packs don't have a Scouter Reserve; parents move up and out, and forget that the Pack they are leaving behind is supporting the Troop that they just moved to, and if that Pack dies, little Johnny won't have lower ranked Scouts to lead when he gets elected to SPL.

Is there a question in the OP? Is this an attempt to stir the pot without making a statement? What is this?

If we change Scouting away from outdoor skills and leadership what does it become? At what point is the program competing with any other after school club? The SM in OP needs to hold the line and make the Scouts do the work. The program is here to develop outdoor skills, leadership, and imbue civic responsibility. I guess the question I have to people who are also seeing a drop off in the outdoor program participation, are you seeing a drop off in civic participation? Do people see units with empty leadership positions?

I think this sort of reinforces what some other posters have commented concerning how a niche subset is drawn to this. It's amazing that there is a 25 member Explorer Post; however, this sort of goes along the lines of the indoors kids doing indoors kid stuff. This would have blown my socks off if it had been the Senior Patrol of some random Troop.

I think going to a Venture Patrol/combined with the Senior Patrol might be the most practical; however, what about the Order of the Arrow absorbing Venturing to some degree? So hear me out, this is a longshot, OA is struggling to engage it's current membership, and to gain new membership. OA due to cultural appropriation etc ... is changing a lot and losing part of what makes it unique amongst Scouting. So what if OA absorbs venturing to become the new fellowship part of OA and makes people really look at wanting to become an OA member to get the benefit of having lodge based co-ed program

The simple answer is that BSA needs to stay out of the gun control debate because BSA is a non-partisan, non-profit. However, since you bring the topic up. There is no good gun legislation, period. We literally have the 2nd amendment because our former government tried to take our guns away while they had their boot on our necks. Here's an idea, BSA should reform the duty to country education in our programs to actually teach why George Washington, while considering himself a loyal British citizen turned his back on the crown, and led the Continental Army in a revolt. We can

I'm a Nova and Supernova counselor and my assessment is that they are good to have on hand, but not what the kids are interested in. At the Cub level my Pack tries to do at least 1 Nova year to provide exposure to STEM, the Scouts like it because everyone without a Nova gets a new patch (the Scouts with a Nova are blahzay as they only get a pin for the patch). Considering that the program is set up like Merit Badges I sort of expect this to eventually get absorbed into Merit Badges or at the BSA Scout level turned into Merit Badges eventually.

Well this is absolutely false, Scouting in general, and thus the BSA was founded on outdoor skills.

Promoting from within is critical if you are attempting to maintain positive aspects of internal culture. It does cause slower responses to external cultural shifts; however, most people are not looking for the same thing in BSA that they are in other non-profits. In my opinion, we want promotion from within, and every paid Scouter should have the strongest Scouting background possible. The volunteer positions can absorb the people with weaker or no Scouting background. I was at UPS for 15 years, in management meetings I would always bark out, "When are we buying our company back?" be

What if Venturing became something like a Venturing Patrol at each Troop? Or perhaps turn it into a college club like program? My only issues with the DEI is that it breaks from the mold of other Merit Badges; there is literally no way to test the knowledge. The Merit Badge is just another requirement thrown on the heap.