emskubie

"Another approach is to try to go camping on those weekends for a 3 day trip. We have done that with good success. Especially MLK day where the youth are off and many parents have to work. Thus, it gets the boys out doing something constructive instead of potentially having too much unsupervised time as some of these holidays become. Emily, You appear to be new to this forum. I would like to kindly and respectfully ask you to reconsider the decision making ability of the youth in your troop (this is Boy Scouts and NOT Cubs). Though they need guidance, this is the time for them to begin to learn how to make decisions and be responsible for their actions. It would be much better to allow them to make a decision that may not turn out well that is then changed than to just over rule them. Scouting is difficult for parents (I have been through it with my children) because the youth should be in control of as much as possible. That helps them to learn. So if a troop's PLC wants to meet on minor holiday Mondays and very few attend, they will change it. Family trips should always take precedent over meetngs - scouting should support rather compete with the family." I am rather new, and I again spoke as a parent. I also think this problem is a great learning opportunity for the boys, so we may be in agreement. I'm am still unclear how much of this is about the boys' calendar versus tension b/t the SM and committee. I think that one of the things that boys need to be guided on when learning how to make decisions is to consider how one's choices might effect other commitments and obligations. Maybe the SM and ASM directly addressed these questions in the planning meeting, and asked the boys to think about how meeting on "minor holidays" would work for them and their families. I feel that my reaction primarily came from the OP, as it felt as if this issue had been pre-determined. I wasn't in either meeting, so I can't speak to that. If the boys knew ahead of time that this would not interfere with prior commitments and had made this decision after considering reasonable alternatives (such as moving the meeting to Tuesday), then maybe this was the best choice for the Troop as a whole. You are certainly right that having boys plan events on MLK day, and then finding that only 2-3 scouts can attend, would teach the boys about making decisions. -Emily

"Historically, our troop, which meets on Monday nights, didn't meet on any holiday. But the SM and I had discussed how there was no reason not to meet on the "minor" holidays, like Columbus Day, MLK's birthday, and President's Day. So the calendar presented to the troop committee showed troop meetings on those days." As a DL, I'm not as familiar with the calendar set up by a PLC, but based on your post, it seems that the boys have very little to do with this problem. The tension is: You (the ASM) and the SM defined "minor" holidays, but then the committee (the parents) decided they weren't minor holidays. Speaking as a parent *only*, regardless of what the committee had decided my son wouldn't be there. We use long weekends as time to be with our family, and would not change our plans to make a meeting. Even if we were home in time to make the meeting, Monday evening after a long weekend with family events tends to be a time of regrouping, catching up for the next school day, etc. My guess is that other parents would feel the same. Similarly, I would be left wondering why a program that is supposed to emphasize the value of your family is asking a scout to choose? As the person who is required to get my son to the meetings each week, it would be a bit of a turn-off. While I am all for teaching autonomy and independence, and perhaps the scouts did decide that they wanted to meet on these holidays, it seems somewhat presumptuous that a group of children made these decisions without consulting their families. I would never make plans for any long-weekend or holiday for my entire family without checking with my family. Maybe I have an atypical family? If my son came home and said, "Hey Mom, we set our calendar, and were meeting on minor holidays and long weekends, so I'm gonna need to make meetings on MLK and President's Day," I would be than a little annoyed. Again, this is speaking as a parent only, not as a member of any committee, and perhaps that was the way your committee was responding? As a parent, if y'all set the final calendar with these holidays as meetings that would be fine though, it would just be 3 meetings that my son couldn't make. -Emily