Eagledad

This is a fun question. I love this program so much, I have often thought of its future. These are not what I want, just how I see how the winds are blowing. I will always long for the program I was in as a youth. On the Cub side, I think we will see a couple more interations of Tiger program changes before the overhead of required number of trained adults pushes the BSA to remove Tigers from the Cub program. I do think however, the BSA will develop a seperate program designed better for that age of boys. The other change that is possible, but I think less likely is lowering the Troop age to get the Webelos II in the program one year earlier. I think the Troop program will see a change in activities. The outdoor program will continue, but it will be watered down by liabilities, political correctness, limited public camping areas and high camp cost. The BSA will in turn add other activities, possibly pointed more toward technology and science. I do see the BSA giving in to some cultural pressure because more and more adult scouters without a youth scouting experience are joining and running the program. There will be less alumni and big money givers to resist changes to traditional parts of the program. Maybe something like giving COs more say. I do believe numbers will never be as high after these changes are made. I also don't think the athiest restriction will change because the BSA will use that to keep their values reputation, which makes it different from most other youth progams. Neither will the girl restriction change and we can thank the the Girl Scouts for that. Pray they hold on because they are struggling. My personal fear for the Troop program is Venturing patrols will go away all together and the max Troop age will be 14. Boy run will still be here in name, but without older scouts, it will not really be what we know it as today. Venture Crews won't go away, but the name will change to encourage more themes that aren't considered adventurous. My other fear is the Troop program will develop into a more nerdy reputation and become less attractive to physically active boys. It will eventally be the program boys who don't enjoy sports look to join. Another reason why the numbers will not get better. As for uniforms, I honestly don't think they will have a dramtic change. At least not like Europe. These may sound like depressing visions, but really it all depends on the results of helping boys develop habits of character and making ethical decisions. I slowly developed these visions after years of talking with professionals and voluntiers way up in the program. On the positive side, I think the BSA will learn from the Canadian program and make adjustments that will keep them here for a long time. Barry

One way I like to explain our program is the adults should be reactive to the scouts, not proactive. Practice of making decisions and working with a team are the best teachers of developing habits that lead to making ethical decisions, not lecture. The hardest part of having a troop of reactive adults is getting the scouts to trust that we will not be over-reactive. Once an adult starts over reacting to a scout's failure, they lost that trust. Barry

>>You or I might think that someone is a sub-standard Counselor. But as long as they are on the list they are Counselors and are approved.

>>You or I might think that someone is a sub-standard Counselor. But as long as they are on the list they are Counselors and are approved.

>>In the meantime if the troop loses his paperwork the scout has a reciept signed by a troop leader showing that he turned in the completed merit badge form to the troop.

>>The second signature which goes on the Scout's portion of the blue card acts as a signed reciept so that the scout can if needed at a future date show evidence that the completed card was returned to a trool leader to record and send to council.

Hi All We had two families with full intention of being their sons (five sons total) counselors for all the MBs just so they could fast track the sons to Eagle. Our adults felt this was not giving the boys the best opportunity to practice making ethical decisions. To suggest it doesnt happen is silly. To suggest how to handle the possibility would help serve the purpose of the forum. >>And what if he picks the wrong counselor? How bad could this be that an adult must step in first to prevent it?

Hi all >>Teachers and administrators do not want to have to actually evaluate things. Much easier for them to overreact.

>>Hey, Eamonn started it!

>>My thought is the fire will destroy the food odor you would get with packing 2-3 day old garbage around.

It's interesting canoeing in the Boundary Waters. The American side suggest trash be carried out. The Canadian side suggest the trash be burned. Barry

Hi Seattle I can relate to your question because my experience as a youth was using counselors outside our troop. Most were not leaders and back then, and not even registered. A lot has changed. We now live in a time of Merit Badge Colleges and Troop Parents counseling most of the merit badges. Still, so long as the scouts follow the BSA guidelines, they still get a lot of character building experiences. But watch out, it is usually the adults making the short cuts, not the scouts. Most Merit Badge Colleges almost completely ignore the guidelines. Have a good day. Barry

>> Are you actually saying that people who don't believe and worship your God are immoral? That non-believers only live by a might-makes-right code? OR are you saying that there is no morality without a grounding in SOME kind of religion, be it Judeo-Christian or other?

Hi All Our troop ran into the same situation while I was SM. We had a new Eagle every month and a half. One Eagle chose to have his COH during a Troop COH and all of a sudden that seem to be the trend. Our committee had the exact same discussion that is going on now. Trev, we decided to not interfer because it was to hard to predict the future. Instead we gave the families several examples of past Eagle COHs so they could choose what would fit best for their family. That worked pretty well because some scouts don't want a big ECOH and others want a wedding size ECOH. We did have one rash of three ECOHs during Troop COHs in six months time. But we have none like the since. My advise is don't worry about it until it becomes a problem. Approach the families with several ideas and allow them to choose. I found it is usually the socuts who follow the trend, but the parents who advise on what is best for the convenience of the family, visitors and speakers. Barry

>>Only God can truly judge

>>Moreover, i can ask the question why would someone want to worship a god that discriminates?

>>I prefer to think that free will is not illusory, if only because it's less depressing.

>>My son is deaf & earned his Eagle so I know a little about dealing with disabilities and how tough it can be.

I want to mention that I had a couple LDS scouts in my units and I know several LDS units in our area camped the whole weekend as non LDS troops. I don't know enough about the religion to comment on their diverisity, just that the families had many choices. Barry

>>There has been talk of setting up a LDS district. I don't know it this is the best idea.

>>Now he is back things do seem to going a lot better in the District. I do question if he really understands this program?

>>you will find the self satisfaction that they have found. You will also find that you are a leader in a very small and ever shrinking troop, just as they have.

>>My inclination is to go over some of the incidents described in this post and say that he isn't providing the leadership and example he needs to qualify for advancement. We could then set some goals for him to achieve, and meet again in thirty days or so to review his progress toward those goals.

Hi all There a lot of good reasons to allow or invite the SPL to the meetings. One comment I remember very well from an SPL; "Wow, now I understand what you have been trying teach me at PLC meetings". We also found that the committee members enjoyed listening and learning the scout's point of view on different subjects. But I would be cautious that he has the time and isn't being pulled in to many directions. I don't think there is right or wrong answer here, only that it should be a positive experience for both the scout and adults. It was been for us. I love this scouting experience. Barry

I really like the idea and respect the amount of work that goes into it. We thought several times about doing our own summer camp because we've never been happy with the quality instruction from BSA camps. I think the number of required adults is what scared us away. But every troop I know that do their own summer camps rarely go back to BSA run camps. The scouts seem to really bond from the experience. I think that must be because they are so immersed in the Patrol Method and the boys work as a team with the adults. Also our troop has planned and run Camporees and our scouts grew from the experience by leaps and bounds. My only comment would be trying to get your younger adults (18 to 21) to be the camp Directors. That way your boy run program doesn't end at age 18, it becomes the next step for growing. You might already be doing this, I don't know. But we do this for our Council JLTC and had very positive experiences. Great stuff. Thanks. Barry