Eagledad

I guess the prohibition of skydiving as a scouting activity might seem obvious. But when I was a BSA Scuba Explorer back in the 70s, scuba diving was ranked as the 2nd most dangerous activity behind skydiving. Like scuba diving, skydiving is much safer now than it was then. Barry

Ironic I guess with today's discussions, around here the OA organize running the events. At least they used to. The adults probably help OA with organizing, but you wouldn't see them running them. I guess adults are OK, I'm just not used to it. Barry

Adults run the events? Barry

Being "Called Out" was a public honor in the old days because the candidates was selected by his peers as the best of the best. Getting through "Ordeal" successfully was a personal honor because the candidate had to prove himself, or fail, under high physical and mental expectations. OA has lost respect as an Honor Program because it has taken "honor" out of being selected as a member. Who would have thought that the day has come when saying "No" might be more noble. Barry

I also taught Woods Tools at IOLS and found one hour challenging just because so many adults were so uncomfortable with handling them. Looking back on the last few generations of adult leader courses, I believe the BSA had it right in the 90's because the basic classes were pretty good a defining the big picture, and WB was advanced teaching skills. Instead of reinventing the courses and their structure, they should have added one day specific skills courses. Each course would spend several hours specifically on Outdoor Tools, First Class First-aid, Cooking, leadership development, Patrol Method, Character development and so on. That would give adults more time on specific skills. Or course there would be the challenge of creating these courses several times a year, but if each district took one month with the purpose of offering it for the whole counsel, then adults could count on the course being offered one every month or two. Barry

This has been a big fundraiser for one troop here for 30 years. Barry

Kind of sad. My best friend growing up had two older brothers, so he had a stack of Boys Life magazines that dated back into the 50's. We used to lay on his bedroom floor for hours reading Boys Life and Mad magazines. We almost bought the Hovercraft plans in the back of the magazine. We had a 3.5 horse Briggs and Stratton waiting to be used for the hovercraft or minibike. We ended up getting into scuba and joined a Scuba Explorer Post instead. Scuba had the girls in bikini's that the hovercraft would never had attracted. Barry

Good and Bad has to be defined. Cliques have a negative connotation, but aren't necessarily bad. I remember a story in Readers Digest about the filming the original Planet of the Apes. There were several different types of apes in the movie and Charlton Heston noticed at lunch one day that the different ape groups each hung together during breaks even though there was no reason to. Cliques are natural. Their behavior is what defines them as good or bad. I think the discussion for patrols can be more defined by casual friends and teams. I found that new patrols of casual friends didn't like holding each other accountable because they didn't like risking the friendship. But teams working toward a common goal will take the risk of holding each other accountable to support the effort of reaching the goal. Casual friends will act as a team when the common goal requires it but a patrol of causal friends without goals to drive them to work together isn't really a patrol in the patrol method since. They are just a group of friends with a common patrol patch on their sleeve. The patrol method itself doesn't build a team or patrol, the goals that drives the group to work together is the motivation to come together. Patrol Method is the Scouting process for developing good habits through the action of making decisions while working toward their goals. No goals, no decisions, no patrol method. Even something as simple as preparing a meal is a goal that forces the causal friends to team up. As the goals get more complicated like planning and doing a backpacking trek, the team makes more decisions, which typically forces the team to grow closer together from the growing respect of each other's efforts. Barry

I see this trend on this forum. The discussions are less about working with the youth and more on policy and guidelines. The new female leaders here seem the most involved with getting to core scouting. Good for them. Remember when the popular theme for staying on the path was, "it's all for the boys. Um, and girls". There is so much noise at the adult level now that the youth part of the youth scouting is taking a back seat. I'm here for any discussions with the youth part. I love the youth scouting part. Our family made this very decision with the YMCA sports after a 2 hour YPT type training (lecture). I know the training is for protection, but it had such a social engineering feel to it. Barry

I'm more of the short and sweat kind of person with food or cake somewhere in there for socializing. Maybe a skit, or a couple of funny stories about summer camp? This is a good place for parents to talk to leaders. Six scouts is pretty intimate, so it can't go long without a slide show or something. Scripts are good so long as the speaker understands the subject. Reading words without context come off cold. Have some fun. The COH can get more business as the scouts mature and the troop grows larger. We usually like to pick one adult to make a special praise for their effort or something they did that was memorable, like fall in the lake. Make it short and fun so the one adult part isn't boring. And, PLEASE, No WB Beadings. Barry

It was these kinds of things why District decreed that the chairman for district activities were no longer given to Wood Badgers with a Ticket Item to complete. I am still amazed by how many activities are given to adults with NO experience at the planning level of "that" activity or any planning experience for any major activities. Our district likes to assign Merit Badge University Planning to troops. Apparently I was the first SM to say no. At which point another SM said, "you can no?". Even our scouts assign activity planning assistants to learn for leading future activities. Barry

That's how you teach "No". Barry

LOL. Our 3 year old grand daughter told us the other day that "We don't say no". Different problem for her young parents, they have been saying no so much that the meaning lost it's effect on our very bright grand daughter (we saw it coming). So, they are now using sentences instead of the word "no" to stop the little princess. And starting with please. I know they will figure it out because they want to figure it out. But, "no" is still used at Grammy and Papa's house. We just do it better. 😎 Barry

Surgical supply store? Is that next to Walmart? Barry

Everything you said is true. Still, I've said before that if this litigation happened 20 years ago, I believe the donors would have saved the BSA. The membership social inclusive situations (not sure what to call them) has drove away much of that support. If National did anything wrong, they didn't give their followers any by-in of a future. Barry

One

Thinking.... Thinking....

I'm a OSU grad, so how can I say a kind thing about OU? Thinking... Thinking...

Depends what you get for your buck. Burnout drop outs are huge in Cubs. Barry

I believe the BSA could help their financial situation by allowing adults to buy their Eagle. But, girls have to earn first class.😎 Barry

Where I believe a fee increase will hurt the BSA harder is the cub program. Parents coming in at the Tiger and Wolf ages are hit with a lot of youth programs. Raising the cost is adding one more consideration. Barry

Who would have thought that not following scouts was unusual. Tell your scoutmaster that just like the scouts have to learn to make good decisions, adults have to learn how to stand back. It takes practice. Reminds me of a parent waiting to ask me a question after a troop meeting. At least a half of dozen scouts swarmed me, each needing to ask me their important question. The adult finally slotted in and asked me how I manage to respectably give each scout his time in the middle of the chaos. My quick answer delivered with a laugh was "Practice". The adult leader job in a troop where scouts are given the freedom to make bad choices is the hardest job in scouting because every sense in their body is telling them to do otherwise. Barry

Ah! An Oklahoma fan. Well said. Barry

I was lucky, in both my youth experience, and as a leader, our scouts had the freedom to screw up. Oh, I cringed as I watched the guardian adults stand next to their youth leaders during their activities in other Troops, youth leadership courses, AND OA. I have passion and their ignorance of what they were doing hurt a lot. Many of these adults are friends, and I didn't know how to change them. This is a romantic article of what scouting can be for boys growing into young adults. I do struggle a little on how the adults are still credited with the nobility of allowing the scouts to learn. Oh, I shouldn't be that way, I know we adults struggle a lot with how far is too far. But, I remember reading a Boys Life article a long time ago from a middle aged author reflecting back on the Beaver patrol of his youth. While a SM was probably implied somewhere, he wasn't given any credit, directly. The Beaver patrol had to scurry up any gear they used for camp outs and figure out how acquire food. They weren't poor, they just had to figure it out because that was how it was. The article talked of surviving the rainiest backpacking hikes and cooking in the hardest conditions. The article didn't say it specifically, but because the Beaver Patrol watched other patrols at a very rainy Camporee, they realized that the hardest conditions might not had been so hard for them in a different troop. And that made the Beaver Patrol all the more proud of being a Boy Scouts in their troop with their Scoutmaster. I know, the Scoutmaster wasn't mentioned directly, but, well, you know. It's a good article. Thanks. Barry

True, but layers are layers and are better than just the pad. As thicker pads work better than thinner pads, so will your clothes. Not all your clothes, just the ones you are wearing that day. Barry