Eagledad

Good post by Kahuna and Beav. Barry

OK, I submit this for balance. ""Police say they were there for a Union meeting. Wright and Kilmer had an argument outside. It ended with Wright "pistol-whipping" Kilmer with his gun."" http://www.newson6.com/story/20651880/emsa-paramedics-arrested-after-getting-into-a-fight-in-okc However we must consider several points here. They were at a union meeting and maybe the problem is the union driving their members into violent tirades. Or consider that the paramedic didnt shoot the pistol, but instead used it as a blunt instrument for defense. In this case the pistol was safer than a large caliber knife or concealed baseball bat. Ive heard that both idiots will lose their conceal carry license as a result of being intoxicated while in possession. They drink a union meetings? Burt (This message has been edited by eagledad)

Believe it or not, the bureaucracy problem is 10 times worse at the Cub Scout level. Bureaucracy is probably not really the best word, but it fits in the way this discussion is going. Less than 50% of Webelos crossover to the troops. That means the BSA has looses around 50% of all its 10 year old scouts. That is just the 10 year olds, what if we add the average losses of the younger scouts ages. The BSA could be loosing maybe as much as 75% of the Cub families before the scouts reach the Boy Scout age. I know there are several contributers to the losses, but it basically comes down to bureaucracy. We have to understand that most boys at the cub age do what their parents tell them to do. If the BSA looses the parents at the cub age, they lost the kids forever. And while I agree that liability is a big driver of bureaucracy at the troop level, membership is driving it at the cub level. Tigers alone requires three times more volunteer time to manage than any other age group because of scout's maturity. That is not including the required participation of parents. Experts say that volunteer organizations can expect an average of 20 months from their volunteers. That is less than two years and the Cub program is five years long. Scouting is hard and bureaucracy is a major contributer. As much as I hate the requirement for adults at Patrol campouts, it's moot if the scouts are driven out of scouting before they even reach the troop program. Barry

>>BDPT00, that line of thinking (aka Camels Nose under the Tent) is a classic logical fallacy. Try again.

>>I confess I was a bit embarrassed by the string of accidental shootings across da nation that coincided with "Gun Appreciation Day". Really? How hard is it to unload your firearm and secure it properly before puttin' it in a case for transport?

>>but till then I view myself as a better owner than a nutter.

>>I've seen the opposite. Only about 1 in 5 of the boys who came into the crew from outside of scouting (or even outside our troop) got anywhere near as involved as the boys from our troop.

The challenge with older boys (14 and older) is they by nature hate change. They are motivated by activities that challenge them physically and mentally. I never had much luck with boys who were not in scouts before age 14 because the administration part of the program like PLC, troop and patrol meetings was boring to them. They didnt really see how administering to the whole program applied to the things they wanted to do like camping, hiking and rappelling. They were bored and eventually left. However, I have seen a very high success rate with older boys joining Venture Crews because they can do the adventure part and willing to endure the administration because they could see how it directly affected them personally. The troop program is designed to use the maturity of all the ages to support the basic structure of growth by observing and serving. Younger scouts learn best by watching older scouts. Older scouts grow from the responsibilities of serving. The design works very well when managed correctly. The Venture program doesnt have the multiple maturity differences to administer and as a result administration is much closer to the each scouts personally. Long way to say that I think Venture Crews is a better way to go for this young man. Barry

>>The only instructions I EVER got from the top brass was to tell them the honest truth.

>>So da notion of "government monopoly" is just a fiction, eh? An alternate reality. Da fact is government-funded research has a high degree of oversight from folks across da political spectrum, and tends to be far less biased overall than private sector research, particularly on sensitive topics.

Now is the time. January, February and March. This gives you enough time to get a few camp outs under your belt to develop some routine of running a troop before summer camp. Summer camp is important because it is a week of intense scouting that bonds both the scouts and scouters together into a functioning troop. Then you have the fall to recruit for the next set of new scouts to come in January and February. That gives your present set of scouts one year of maturity to work with the new scouts. I wish you the best of luck and hope we can help with your future questions. I love this scouting stuff. Barry

Well as I read it, it's giving more control of our lives to Obamacare. Pretty clever really. I wouldn't have thought of that except a friend last week was told to find a new doctor when she refuse to answer his question of whether she had guns in the house. Obama is making the doctors into our personal behavior police. Barry

>>I'm saying we need to discuss all of it, guns, video games, movies, family, mental health, schools - the whole kit-and-kaboodle, and stop treating guns like the 1,200 pound gorilla in the room that everyone tiptoes around.

>>Until the NRA and gun owners understand that guns are part of the real problem and that guns have got to be part of the discussion, then we aren't going to really get anywhere.

I work in a job where we build teams a lot to accomplish task. Ive become pretty good at building and managing productive teams, but it wasn't without a lot of maturing on my part. I learned over the years that we are who we are and that instead of trying to change a person, it is a lot easier to just place that person where their skills have the most impact and their baggage has the least. That doesnt mean those who have the been there done that shirt shouldnt pass along hard earn wisdom like skipping a campout or two and take the wife out to dinner. But sometimes its best to just let folks keep themselves busy their way. I admit that busybodies can sometimes make our job more difficult. We get programmerswho come in and write computer programs to do this or that for the troop. Great program until the next adult has to takeover the responsibility and use it. I learned over the years to restrict these noble task to within the limits of scouts testing the system. If the scouts likes it, go with it, but if he scratches his head, scrap it. Scouts are lazy by nature and like simplicity to the Nth degree. Barry

>>What's more, it's a horrifying precedent to allow any special interest group to do that. Imagine the auto makers blocking research on transportation safety, drug makers blocking independent research on the long-term effects of their drugs, teachers' unions blocking research on teacher effectiveness - all because they want to preserve the status quo and their profits.

>> Some points to bring up: 1) No one is taking the SM signature away

>> If you disagree with the approval of MBCs, take it up with the district committee chair or the district advancement coordinator.

>>Should not the focus be on removing the adults who are not to be trusted with the program rather than to figure out ways around the bad egg?

Two news articles on the same day. White House eying 19 executive actions on guns http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/biden-guns-executive-actions-86187.html?hp=t1_3 NRA: Membership Has Grown by 250,000 in One Month http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/15/nra-membership-has-grown-by-250000-in-one-month

>>If a District approves a person or even a married couple for all 126 merit badges, isnt that a problem that should be addressed somewhere along the line?

>>If a Scoutmaster wants to keep Mom and Dad from signing 126 MB apps and turning them in (ok, shooting sports and aquatics are harder now that self-selection is no longer the standard), then he makes sure to assign Counselors to youth.

There have been some discussions in the past of the blue card being a way for Scoutmasters to control advancement or even road block scouts from advancing. I think the idea is that by taking the unit signature off the blue card, the scouts control their advancement without any unit adult check along the way. I don't know the details but the intent is noble. Barry

>>Such ecletic renaissance individuals exist, I just don't think there are that many to worry about. SHould really fuel discussions at the Star and Life Boards of Review, wouldnt it?

I sorry, I wasn't very clear. I'm talking about the abuse of one person (usually a parent) being a counselor for all the badges for the purpose of speeding up advancement. I had this problem myself with a couple families. How would you discourage that abuse with a no checks or balance MB process? Barry