Eagledad

Back in the day, when I was trying to save the world, I sought the commissioners' help in identifying issues that were undermining the program, such as losing over 50% of Webelos before crossover (the National Average). The short story is not just NO, but..... If the commissioners could visit a unit once every two months to just observe casually what the Dens and patrols are doing, then they could report their observations to the District Commissioner (DC). If the DC identifies a trend, the district can then approach a solution, such as training. Of course, that approach requires identifying levels of performance and methods for working below minimum performance. If judging unit performance is not expressed correctly, then yes, observing units will appear to be overstepping. I've been there. But it can work. One DC friend ran the UC corps successfully in the largest district in Minnesota. He addressed problems quickly and with compassion. A good UC corps starts with a good DC. In my opinion, the DC is the most critical Key Three position. They require a big-picture understanding of the scouting program and how the units fit in the model. Then, they develop a district program to help unit leaders enhance their unit performance within that model. Most districts take the first person that says yes to the UC position, but more often than not, they aren't qualified. First, the district needs to find someone who is a good recruiter; it's a skill. They will find a qualified UC. Barry

Well, the program isn’t making it any easier, google “Boy Scouts woke” and there is very little positive responses from all sides of the spectrum. The program is caught on a cultural yoyo that makes it difficult for anyone to discuss. My wife and I travel internationally quite a bit and I often find myself bragging about the benefits of scouting I observed from my experience. I have found folks of all backgrounds and nationalities are intrigued with the scout program and want something like it for their community. I don’t step into the resent changes because I don’t want to turn the discussion political. I like to leave it positive. Barry

Great post, thanks. i used to teach the same approach. I believe the SM should have a feel for how a scout is doing before they are ready for the BOR. Like courious scouter, I may have signed off his SMC long before he completed the other requirements. For me, scouting is about personal growth. Some scouts have grown a lot, but they are in no hurry for advancement and that’s fine with me. I tend to have a good feel for simply by finding opportunities to have a quick chat asking how it was going. We might have something in common and I would bring that up or ask how a new patrol mate is dong. You can learn a lot about scouts at a SM conference, but few small chats tells you pretty much what you need to know. You can sign their book if they have it, or during a conference they request and use that opportunity to brag about them. Our CC told me of one scout during his BOR who didn’t remember having a SM conference with me after lunch earlier that day. When she reminded him of our chat while I bought him an ice cream bar, he was surprised to learn that was a SM conference. He just asked me how baseball was going. Any excuse to have an enjoyable chat with a scout. If I knew a scout was having a challenge with the scouting experience, I would try to get them to discuss it, and then I might ask if they felt they were ready for the advancement. Sometimes they would say no and set a goal to prove themselves. Even better when they want to grow. The sign off is important, but if it’s also fun, I can say 25 years later, it’s memorable. Barry

Thank you kindly. It’s a simple philosophy that everyone should go home feeling good about their scouting experience. Barry

It's really up to the Course Leader. I approved several leaders working together. I wanted the leaders to grow in the area they would be working. I am not sure why you wanted to work with Cubs if your mainly working for scouts. But, I would have been open minded. I did help adult shift their thinking of what they were going to do for the units. You would be amazed at how many adults aren't given expectations for helping their unit. A lot of units are running like well oil machines, so they aren't looking specific volunteers. I often worked with them on tickets to learn how patrol method worked and how adults should work in that format. They really enjoyed it. On troop leader had was very limited with his volunteering time time. He was a CEO and spent a lot of time working with teams for development. We came to the conclusion that he would work great on the district committee in planning with his limited time. So we designed his tickets toward working with the committee. There is no doubt he would be running the Committee in a year or two. He had rare skills that every district would want. So really the answer the expectation Tickets depends on the WB team. They are all different. Barry

I asked because I believe when done correctly, the ticket experience has the most impact for the participants. I agree tickets can get out of control and add very little growth to the scouter’s scouting career. I also was given ticket items approval responsibility and was able to counsel participants and TGs to simpler Ticket Items that enhanced their volunteer experience more directly. I was glad to help and counsel any participant who felt stress with their tickets. The experience really should be fun and something that add excitement. Many folks aren’t creative and struggle with Ticket Items, so I had enjoyable discussions with them to learn about their goals for scouting and then we discussed simple ideas for growing towards their goals. One new SM was struggling with his role for PLC meetings, so he created a ticket item to visit and observe PLC meetings of 5 other troops. One CM was also the Webelos leader and Tiger leader. So we created a Ticket item to recruit a Tiger and Webelos leader so she could focus on what she wanted to do, Cubmaster. I know sounds obvious to many that she should have done that in the first place, but things often happen that complicate our lives in such a way we done see it happening. Then suddenly we are overwhelmed and the fun is gone. When the fun is gone, scouts suffer the most. Most scouts leave because of boredom. Many districts use WB ticket items to source event leaders like camporees, which often lead to inexperienced adults planning complicated events that give scouts a terrible experience. I didn’t approve any event planning unless the participants could prove they had previous successful experience, and it would be a fun growing experience for their future scouting career. Scouting is supposed to be fun and the WB ticket items experience should be a highlight of growing as a Scout Leader. I had motto for both the scouts and adults; If it’s not fun, change it. Barry

What are your Ticket Items? Barry

Any SPL handbook works, too. In fact, I required all the SMs in my Scoutmaster Specific class to have one to use with the PLC for coordinating expectations. A team should work from the same book. Think of it as a condensed version of an SM Handbook. Barry

I’m am a mixed age patrol guy. I’ve tried them all and the fastest scout growth occurs in patrols with older aged and experienced mentor role models. But, building patrols is not easy. It takes experience. I agree to a point that the scouts have to be involved. But, if the adults (role model, mentors) struggle, the scouts certainly will. Don’t throw them in dark without some kind of guidance and plan. Work as a team with everyone understanding the goal as well as the challenges. Make the successes and failures a team responsibility so that both scouts and adults work the problem together. I promise the scouts take these things to heart and will work to fix challenges the next time. They don’t like it any more than adults. And you will be amazed how seriously they do these things as the troop learns and grows when they know that the adults have their back. This subject is an example that scouting is hard and the more the adults and scouts work as a team, the more confident everyone feels trying new ideas to improve the experience. Scouting is a safe place because failure is an opportunity to grow. That goes as much for the adults as it does for the scouts. Another deep discussion is news scouts and how to get them merged in the troop. But, that is a different subject for another day. Merry Christmas everyone. Barry

I understand what you are saying, but my experience with adults is that less is more. Adults tend to hinder the scouts' growth in character because, by their nature, adults don't like youth making bad decisions. I'm not sure what you consider average skills. Are knots, lashings, and orienteering average skills you're speaking about? Still, the troop program is designed so that scouts lead and manage their activities. That program doesn't require many adults. Of course, scouts have to continually grow to develop the skills for dealing with the responsibilities of running the program and their personal growth. A mature program requires a minimum number of adults because the scouts are responsible for the program's activities and business, including training. The challenge for units is having a resource pool of skilled experts to prevent stumping scout growth. Barry

Yes, my delegating comment was for the program 25 or 30 years ago when there were still many experienced Scouters. My point about the adults in today's scouts program is a different situation. I'm pretty creative when looking for solutions, but this one is a challenge. The program now, whatever it's called (part of the problem), needs big changes in identity and training. Barry

If the unit commissioner isn't working, it's the DE's fault. I have seen districts with great Commission Corp, and it's a beautiful thing to watch. However, the DC's job is complicated and requires above-average skills and training. Most districts don't recruit people capable of developing and using those skills. Yep. In the earlier days, before 1990, 80% of unit leaders were scouts as a youth. So, they walked knowing more about the game than the purpose. They basically stepped into the position running, and the implementation wasn't overly complex. Today's unit is lucky to have 25% leaders with a youth scouting experience. Training just doesn't meet the need for new adult leaders without a youth scouting experience. It's not so simple. Learning the skills on your list, much less knowing when to use them, takes a long time. One-year first-class scouts are typically terrible with skills. Mostly because a program that encourages earning First Class in one year isn't a good skills program anyway. I've trained and counseled a lot of scoutmasters without a youth scouting experience, and most quit in a couple of years, realizing they were not right for the job. However, I believe they would have been fine if they had been willing to delegate skills they lacked to others. I had the skills but rarely needed them because I was a delegator and liked to get other people involved. And, there are very few skills adults need to know that older scouts can't do themselves. But, in almost every case of the scoutmasters I counseled, the scoutmaster took on the responsibility because they wanted to be head honcho, and the responsibilities didn't look hard. Their ego was the problem. The program has a big challenge today because most of the leaders they get today don't have an understanding of the program from youth experience, so they see it from a different perspective. Typically, it is not a perspective that is fun for the youth. Also, the program has changed in the last few years, so its newer identity is not attractive to the last generation of scouts. My 37- and 40-year-old sons aren't interested in being leaders because what they see doesn't appear like the program they had in the late 90s. Barry

Well said. Humility is the fertile ground for the growth of integrity. Barry

A lot. But it’s not new. As we’ve discussed before, over 50% of Webelos 2s don’t crossover into troops. Add in the number of cubs that quit in the other 4 years. And just about all that is on bad adult leadership. I’m guessing nationally that at least 60% of cubs don’t don’t finish the cub program. The troop program has the problem that troops loose more first year scouts than any other year in the BSA program. BUT, to be fair, most bad leaders are parents with average skills. The Cub program is over burdened and overly complicated for parents with average skills. The training and professional support doesn’t supplement these parents enough to bring their skills up to lead a quality program. Parents with skills for a quality program typically were scouts as a youth. Especially in troops. The Cub program needs an overhaul. Barry

I was the Dist Membership Chair between 1995 and 2000. National polled our opinions of the early Tiger program and what changes would improve the program. I was shocked to learn that the changes in 1999 were the opposite of the suggestions we provided. I ran the district meeting that announced the changes to the packs, and they were not received well. Two packs quit their Tiger program, and several others didn't add the changes. We learned later that National based their program changes from polls of Tiger parents. Not pack leaders. That also explains why National went to the much more expensive blue shirts from the much cheaper Tiger T-shirts. That was another big deal for young, busy parents who were deciding whether to join. Barry

Yep, National made major changes to the Tiger program in 1999, switching from 2 meetings a month to 4 meetings and requiring an adult to attend all activities with each Tiger scout. The Cub program was already overburdened, but those changes added insult to injury and made it less desirable to busy parents. The drop was predictable, as was the sudden drop of Troops four years later that resulted from the decline of the Cub program. If I remember right, membership had been dropping in the early 1990s until the war in Iraq. The sudden boost of patriotism seemed to motivate temporary growth in the BSA. Barry

Transgenderism is a future liability issue that was discussed on this forum a few years ago. One example of Nationals membership changes that are ironically making scouting more exclusive. Barry

I admit I don’t understand this comment. Do all youth live in a cocoon except during scouting activities. Except for sports, youth are coed in just about all their activities since the age for Mother’s Day out. in fact, I think one would struggle to get through a day without doing at least one coed activity. Single gender scouting is not depriving anyone from developing awareness of the other gender on the broader front. Barry

Not everyone wants coed. Barry

Well said. We found that while many scouts get leadership experience, leadership skills are learned more by watching other leaders. And leadership training doesn't add much to the development. Which is why we stopped offering repetitive annual leadership development courses and started offering leadership tuning courses on demand. Why attend a skill you already know when instead get instruction for an area of leadership that you are struggling with? Outdoors truly is the foundation for scouting because it puts the scouts in a challenging environment where they must make survival decisions. If you watch closely, you see that the patrol members must make many decisions just to cook a meal. The farther the patrol gets from working as a team, the more they struggle to enjoy a tasty meal. The outdoors forces evaluations of bad decisions and rewards for good decisions. The outdoors forces wisdom and integrity simply through the efforts of surviving the campout. The biggest hindrance to that growth is the adults not allowing the scouts to have that experience. Adults can only get out of the way by separating their camp 200 feet away from the scout's camp. I love this scouting stuff. Barry

It makes sense, efficiency with limited resources of adults would encourage a coed program. Barry

Are you saying an option for full coed or single-gender patrols or just full coed? I can't believe I'm saying this, but maybe National knows something you don't. Barry

The troop membership trend used to reflect the pack membership trend five years later. But the Cub growth in 2022 makes me wonder if adding girl membership will change that factor. I would be curious to know how much membership changes in the GSUSA from 10-year-olds to 12-year-olds. Do girls lose interest as the program becomes more outdoor? That is when my daughter quit. Barry

This has been a pretty common discussion for 30 years. I researched and found that most families leave scouting mainly because of burnout from the Pack program. Less than 50 percent of second-year Webelos cross over to the troops. They leave because their program, led by burned-out adults, is boring. Many folks suggest moving 5th graders to the Troops, but I am skeptical because of their maturity. The first-year troop scouts have the highest dropout rate of any group in the program, and I am concerned that 5th-grade scouts would worsen the problem. The Tiger-age scouts need to be moved out of the pack program because their toddler maturity (reading, patience, and listening) doesn't fit in with the maturity of the rest of the scouts. I could see a hybrid program for the second-year Webelos in which the troops could assist with it. Even just meeting at the same location as the troop during a troop meeting makes a difference. A weak leader could easily ask for assistance during a difficult meeting, and the Webelos could watch the older scout program in action. I've experimented with the Hybrid approach, and it works if the troop is on board. While I'm glad National is trying to streamline the program, I am disappointed to learn they didn't shorten the Cub years. I'm sure they've heard the complaint because it is discussed often, and I personally complained to National about it 25 years ago. I think they are afraid to lose the Tigers, but I'm confident that membership would increase at all program levels within five years. Barry

The only way I could track real numbers when I was District Membership Chair was 1 to 1 contact. A very frustrating number is Webelos who join troops but never show up. That number stays on record for almost a year. And it's a pretty high number. Nationally at the time a little over 50% of Webelos did not cross over to troops. But the number is much higher when the no-show cross-overs are added. Which they never are. And, because the no-show Scouts are included in the 1st year drop outs, that number is over inflated. Why is that a big deal; because troop 1st year drop outs is the largest group membership drop out since National started tracking membership. Barry