qwazse

Perhaps being a 70s kid, I don’t see the point. Our scouts seem to be earning different elective MBs. And they’re doing it honestly. I would discourage revising a program around those who will try to short-change advancement. It only makes it more confusing for the straight shooters.

Sounds about right. The IT structure was built on the assumption of a certain number of staff available to address unique cases. Keep up those calls and this will get cleared soon enough.

Allowing cell phones when your trading post sells MBPs sounds like a losing strategy. That said, our trading post doesn’t sell MBPs.

I can think of no faster way to decommission a garrison than to deny programs that servicemen and women want for their kids. That said, even among military families, demand for scouting programs is limited. The West Point camporee, should it turn its attention to Trail Life youth, could be a game changer for that organization. On the other hand, the school will have less access to youth. BSA faces a sunken cost dilemma with Summit. The DoD has a similar issue. Sec Def would have to pose a different mechanism to spend a million and have access to tens of thousands of high school students for a week. I’m pretty sure congress would be skeptical of any other scheme for that price. Also, SBR has some nice terrain for drone training. There’s a deal to be made here.

Having been raised in a troop that had BoRs monthly, I don’t see that as a problem. But, if they flex their schedule, they really should flex with scouts. Does a month here or there really matter? Probably not. But if it doesn’t, then setting aside time for 2nd BoR shouldn’t matter either. On the other hand, you’re stuck with the culture you have. Leave a little grace to consider that the SM may have acted the way he did with this scout because he wasn’t pleased with how things went down three months ago. He knew he couldn’t adjust the BoR schedule, so the path of least resistance was to be available on weekends to conference ambitious scouts.

Possible reply: “Priority is given to skills training, which is primarily done in situ on campouts, which we use meetings to plan. We encourage skill mastery at meetings BY PLANNING IN ADVANCE with fellow scouts to set aside meeting time to do so.” Or, don’t waste your breath and just work for smiles.

They can vote with their feet.

Phone a different MBC each month. That allows for 36 awards potentially earned between ages 11-12. What would happen if the majority of scouts did that? MBU proponents would gripe about the 1% of scouts who skate through because of the few lax MBCs.

@mylo_cat, I think I know who in particular helped you. Rock solid customer service. Excellent display skills. He used cordage instead of screws to put up display racks. I hope you get to visit the shop and thank the staff in person. ETA: They would love a thank-you with picture. Seriously, they work for bonuses in smiles.

I will also point out: social media posts intended to trigger rise up on feeds. Meanwhile proper discourse like what people may ponder in this moderated forum is not clickable. Even if a decent comment from a seasoned scouter here were to get memeified, it would be framed so terribly that half of us would think their membership should be revoked. When I was advising my coed crew, my most strident opponents provided some excellent program activities for my youth. Words may hurt me, but sticks and stones make for a great cooking fire.

I’m afraid that your expected timeline for change is far too soon. Seven or eight years is far too soon for any of these young women to rescue the lost in an avalanche, explore some unknown frontier, lead her nation through war, secure a peace, or become mom of the year or any of the other feats where, as such an adult, she will look back and say her time on the trail to eagle was the first step toward the rarified height where she now stands. Then and only then will people not have time to complain about the rise of a single scouting program for Americans of both sexes. I have a niece who I believed was presidential material. She balked when I said it years ago. She is now on her school board. I envision in another decade or two half of you will be voting for her, and the other half will be making up partisan excuses not to. (I’m just writing this now to be able to link to it in the future.) But for that to happen, she will have prevail in a sea of nay-sayers. Same for my daughter when she’d play dress-up. I told her to never settle for princess, or even queen. It’s empress or bust. The metaphor still applies now that she is an engineer solving a major corporation’s largest problems. My son’s wives are in similar positions. I sincerely hope one day they have their own firm. But that kind of growth only occurs when those who oppose you manifest for who they are. These “bullies” are doing your scouts a favor. They have something to overcome. It will make them great.

Well, there’s two. Sounds like leadership in his academic trajectory is of immediate importance. Are the family farmers? Have their own business? There might be one or more things that he can do to represent them. Religious life? Is there something he’d like to do for his faith community? How about on the ride to or from school? Maybe he can get to know one thing about each classmate. The requirement shouldn’t be overthought. It’s to help someone realize that leadership opportunities are everywhere. Give the kid at least one simple idea that you think suits him, and ask him to come up with three more. For some kids, structured activities are a no-brainer. For others, it’s noticing little things where they can make a contribution. Be positive, and hopefully this kid will come back to you with some nice ideas.

@brennan52 welcome to the forums and best of luck with your project. While you’re at it, consider starting to work toward the Distinguished Conservation Service Award.

The school is off today, so technically no meeting. We are, however, meeting at a local park to decorate one of their Christmas trees. We won’t meet during Christmas break, but we are planning a backpacking trip after Christmas. At the last CoH, I asked the boys to give a round of applause for the adults who provided the depth of leadership required for the activities we can do during “gaps” between meetings.

What position? Like a bill to reduce DoD's budget by the amount they would no longer spend to help secure jamborees or feed scouts evacuated from a hurricane?