Why did you quit?

[Mike F]

I dropped out after 6 months - primarily because of some out-of-control bullys in the troop. Troop was at a tough time with temporary acting SM.

 

My former Webelos leader, who had become SM of another troop, wouldn't let me go. He was always on the lookout for me at the neighborhood swimming pool, etc., and talked to me about going back to give it another try - he had heard it was getting better. What I didn't find out until many years later was that he had numerous discussions with other people, too. He spent time with my troop leadership to help them see the problems and fix them. He also came to my house when he knew I wasn't there to talk to my parents. My parents still didn't know much about scouting and didn't care one way or the other, but he convinced them I needed scouting (he was right!) and together they all ganged up on me until I finally went back to find a changed troop.

 

As a direct result of this one man's persistence, I -- and my two younger brothers -- found great joy in a lifetime of scouting throughout high school, college, and beyond. We all made Eagle and are active scouters today with sons following in our boot prints.

[eagle90]

I must be one of the strange ones: I NEVER HAVE QUIT!! I just received my 45 year pin at our District Awards Dinner last month. Started at age 8 in Cubs and have been around ever since!

[River2K]

I quit my troop a couple months after receiving my Eagle. The troop went through a Scoutmaster change at the time. It just felt different afterwards and a little uncomfortable. I never officially quit, just stopped attending meetings. Nobody ever called me to ask why I stopped attending. I wasn't missed. At that age I was easily distracted. Other friends in the troop did the same.

 

At the time it felt like once a scout received their eagle they were through. That was my perception back then. The troop never promoted "giving back" to scouting. I didn't know any better. I think had the new scoutmaster called and asked me to continue as an example to younger scouts I would have stayed. One phone call would have made a lot of difference for me then.

 

 

Ken

[Laurie]

Boredom had my nephew drift away for awhile, almost quitting completely. So, I got the ok from my son's SM, and he was invited to attend meetings at this troop. He was still registered, just inactive. He learned how to use the saw and ax, has some safety review on knives, then he ended up heading back to his own troop to ask his SM if he could show him what he learned. He was awarded his Totin' Chip and began to advance again pretty much immediately. The other boys wanted this too, so the program was added to. And when he came back, other boys did too. Yep, one person can make a difference. I asked him WHY he stopped going, then I helped him to see he had other options. That was time well spent, and Scouting will be stronger for this young man sticking to it.

[britag]

i was a life scout when i graduated high school at age 17. i quit my troop to persue a military career. after gulf war one and somalia i decided to get out. now i have returned to both as a ASM and a reservist my life seems to have gotten something back. i totally regret not trying to earn eagle. but, maybee i can help someone else.

i always ask people why they quit. the most popular replys i get are "my scoutmaster thought he was a marine drill instructor" or "there was a bully" or "didnt fit in too the clic" . i do know this for sure : scouting requires you to be dedicated at all levels

[fboisseau]

When I was a Boy Scout, I quit for the following reasons.

 

1. Did not understand what was going. No one explained to me how to advance or told what we were doing and why? I was lost from the start.

2. My Summer camp experience effected by the above. I learned First-Aid (and probably got the First-Aid merit badge) and had fun. Learned how to paddle a canoe, went swimming, and for the most part had fun. But I did not know what was going on, do not remember any adults at camp (I am sure they were there, but they made no impression on me) and again was left with a void concerning advancement.

3. Scouting eventually came down to delivering 300 paper dealing with advertising a week for $9.00 (Troop fund raising project) and nothing else.

 

What have I done to resolve the problems above. Learn as much about the program as possible, try to get the units I work with trained and smoothly working and made sure that the boys I worked with understood the program.

[louie6000]

I quit at Life also.

To this day I believe that my Scoutmaster was jealous of me. I can recall the day I quit my troop with amazing clarity. It was time to load the bus for summer camp and he approached me and my Dad and said I couldn't go since I had missed two campouts. This was a ad-hoc variation on the rules that you could not go to camp if you missed more than one campout and the one had to be excused. He was unbudging that I had missed two campouts(even though I reminded him of interactions and events on one he says I missed). Other kids were going that had missed multiple campouts and he flexed the rule. (He's an attorney by the way) Long story-shortened. he simply did not want me at "his" summer camp. The problem? I was the only "crossover" scout/venturer affilliated with his troop and the venture crew that met at the same building. The troop and venture crew were always at odds even though they were independently chartered by the same board. It was a few years later that they split the venture crew out of the building with much acrimony between the adults involved. I simply rubbed the SM/lawyer the wrong way since I was a very successful scout and venturer (my only two extra-cirrucular activities at the time). I grew up a lot that day. I never realised that adults and their pettiness in the real world could be that obtuse and unfair in the face of overwheming evidence of being mistaken. My scheduled tent mate cried in the man's face that he was dead wrong. I needed to go to camp for some eagle requirements. Instead, in one phone call to the Camp Director, I retrieved my position as Camp Quatermaster and Merit badge counselor. I was refunded my camp fee and allowed to join the staff then and there. My dad drove me to camp and I settled in to work on my third summer staff. I did not get time to do the Eagle merit badges I needed. I quit after returning home that summer. Regrets? yes. Satisified that I kept my character in spite of inflammatory situation? Yes again. Will my son who finishes Webelos this year be allowed to think of joining the troop where this man is still SM? EMPHATIC NO!! this man has no business shaping men for leadership roles. I have seen the dark side of his character. As an adult in the same town I have heard others slight his character in the legal world. I never join these discussions as I think my recolections of my perceptions as a 15 year old might not be 100% accurate. Yet, nobody I have heard talking about him speaks positively at all. I quit and I did not have the frame of mind to find a troop in the month I needed for Eagle.

 

Likewise, no phone call, ever. For a Patrol Leader.Weird, huh?

[Bob White]

So Louie have you been involved with your son in scouting since Tigers?

[Eamonn]

While there have been times when I have been more active then others I have been registered as a member of some kind of Scouting organization or Association since I joined at age 8.

Eamonn

[Hunt]

I quit my troop after about 18 months when it stopped being fun. I had enjoyed summer camp and a number of outings, but for some reason the tone of the troop changed and the meetings became much more regimented, with uniform inspections, standing at attention, etc.--the fun just went out of it.

[louie6000]

Re: Bob Whites question.

My son's pack had an interested mom as Tiger leader, but I have been and am now his den leader since Bobcat, wolf etc. I plan to help in whatever troop he joins and if he joins the same Venture crew I was in, I'll help there too. We participate in most things as a family (Church, Music etc.). "Once a volunteer, always a volunteer."

[Overtrained]

I left scouting after Cub Scouts. I switched schools and my new school didn't have scouting. What dissappointed me was that my pack and its troop were at my church.

 

Had someone asked me, I would have joined. Fortunetly, I developed an interest for Aviation and sought out an Explorer post and have stayed in scouting ever since.

 

I conducted a SM specific training this weekend and when we talked about membership I asked the group about the times a scout joined their troop other than from the webelos den. There were several answers, but most of them were because someone asked the boy to join.

[Bob White]

So Louie600 help me out with some math problems.

 

You said you quit at 15 after three years on camp staff, but national regs for camp staff requires you to be 14 to enter as a CIT. So it should have been two years right?

 

You were in Venturering and in the troop, but you have a son in Webelos that you have worked with since Tigers, so he is at least 9 or 10 years old. Venturering is only 6 years old? For you to have been in Venturing and have a nine year old son, it would have required him to be born when you were a scout of 11 years old.

 

How could that be?

 

You said you were 15 at the time, and had a month to finish Eagle? But You have until 18 to finish Eagle.

 

The numbers don't add up. I'm sure there is an explaination but I don't know what it could be.

 

 

[louie6000]

Wow you forum guys are particular.

in 1980, 81 and 82. You could be on staff.

in 1982 The same people, the same organization existed as a Explorer post and is now a venture Crew. Would you have lit me up If I said my son was joining an explorer post? Can't win for losing on this forum.

My son is 10.

As for the month I needed, that is about the amount of time I needed to get eagle. I would not have streched it out till age 18.

 

Also to your statement "The numbers don't add up. I'm sure there is an explaination but I don't know what it could be."

Remember, a scout is trustworthy. Give a guy the benefit of the doubt that an explantion like the above "does" exist.

[Blaze66]

Well I didn't actually quit Cub Scouts, Cub Scouts Quit me... or rather the leaders did. I lived in a really small community when I was of Cub Scout age and there was only one pack anywhere around me. The pack was started by a few leaders in one of my friend's churches. I went through Wolves and Bears and then the pack folded up because the leaders quit. Two years later I got into a Boy Scout Troop across town at another church. I made it to Second Class and then I dropped out. Basically because the troop wasn't doing anything. Meetings were a joke, either the boys just sat there and goofed off or the leaders preached for an hour and a half on something we did wrong the week before. Plus I grew up camping. After the first two real campouts we ever did and I realized that I was doing more rugged camping on my own with friends than the scouts were doing I got disintrested. There idea of outback camping was a giant cabin tent next to the car in a farmers field not a mile from the regular meeting site!

This whole experience though has changed my life because I got back into scouting as an adult when my son joined Tigers. My son has been out of Cub Scouts now for almost 4 years and me and my wife are both still doing Cub Scouting. Mainly the reaon I am still there is because I didn't want any boy to be left behind because they didn't have a leader like I was when I was in Cub Scouts. Although I have dilligently stuck with Cub Scouts now for 9 years, I am slowly about to get out. Mostly because I am burned out. Secondly because I have to choose too many times between doing something with the Troop my son is in and being a leader and doing something with the Pack. My short time in Boys Scouts as a youth has also effected my time as an adult leader in the Troop. I push more for backcountry adventures with the troop rather than car camping experiences. Most of the boys in the troop when they first got in, hated backpacking but now because we have pushed it so much and taken them to so many places they couldn't go car camping, they now love it. My son is now 13 and a Life Scout. I hope that through my participation and pushing him to strive for the best he can be, that he will one day earn the rank of Eagle. (hopefully before the gas and girls syndrome takes effect!) But long after he has gone from the youth side of scouting, I expect to stay around. Not only because I enjoy it, but because of my experiences or lack of experiences as a youth in Scouting and my desire for no boy who wants to be in scouting being left behind.