Stosh

Exactly what does the word family mean? everywhere I look it includes Mom, Dad, brothers and sisters. Where does that fit into the patrol method? It doesn't! The only way I can imagine is the Smith Patrol or Jones Patrol, and that is exactly what BP would find an abomination to the program. Nothing I could imagine can destroy the program faster than family scouts, it is the death knell of the patrol method.

The secret to doing AAR's is to not let the boys know you're doing one. I started out my last one with, "Hey, guys! It's stopped raining just in time to go home!" My mistake, the boys wanted to hang around for another 4 hours of fishing, which we did and "chatted about the weekend" while fishing.

How does one make constant improvements in the program without constant evaluation of what's working and what isn't?

One of the best tours we had in recent years was touring the local post office. The PostMaster did a great job and even I thought it was interesting. Some of the sorting machines are pretty impressive. The local PO also has other federal offices there that were introduced and toured a bit. The passport office, the FBI, etc. all held the boy's attention.

Let me get this straight. We are supposed to be doing the patrol method. How do parents and siblings fit into the patrol method? In my humble opinion, they don't. And then, what's the purpose of a parent/sibling patrol that hangs around 300' away? Is that purpose useful? In my humble opinion, no. My main concern with this whole mixed bag thingy is that it might work when one has an adult run, troop program. Then at least mom can wash the dishes and pick up camp while the boys run around doing nothing but getting into trouble someplace else. I've tried to be open on this whole process, but from my experience, co-ed and family are two different entities. Co-ed in an all-boy environment is bad enough. Mom and Dad and siblings, and the therapy dog, and friends of friends does nothing but distract and destroy the patrol method of scouting. While one can pound a screw into wood with a hammer, it destroys the wood and the screw at the same time. It's not ideal and if one is looking for mediocrity, this is a surefire way of getting it.

I always do an After Action Review of a lot off activities. I don't do the Thorns and Roses, because a lot of the thorns would be bad weather, etc. I use Past Wins and Future Wins. Past Wins are those thing that were done well and are easily identified. What were the fun and exciting things. The Future Wins are what were those things that didn't go as well that we need to work on to make it a Past Win. Now there's not much one can do about the weather (Future Wins) but maybe a bit of pre-event weather watching, picking activities appropriate for the weather or maybe being better prepared in the future for bad weather to insure it is a Past Win from what they learn. It rained gangbusters, but the new dining flies were terrific and the boys got to play cards at the picnic table or the rain was good because the fishing was good, etc. It helps with a glass-half-full attitude. On our latest outing, fishing, it rained gangbusters, but the fishing was good, the boys had a great time and as one boy put it, "We got some pretty good bragging rights out of the deal." If the boys have the opportunity to win all the time, they have a great time. I really don't want thorns in my garden.

I didn't think just putting an @ in front of a name would code it. Nice to know. It has always been case sensitive and with names like Back Pack the space is necessary too.

It didn't tag me.....

Of course people make additions and changes, that's how society re-writes history. It's how society affirms the idea that people are constantly making mistakes and the next generation has to fix it. Of course that fix only lasts 5 seconds before the next guy is coming up with a new and better mousetrap. It's called progress, but nothing is ever said about where that "progress" is headed. A few phrases come to mind with this process. 1) If it ain't broke, don't fix it. 2) It sounded like a good idea at the time. 3) Times are a changin'. There might just be a good reason the 10 Commandments were written in stone. Every no longer existent empire this world has ever had, had at one time it's Golden Age, at least until someone came along and decided to make changes.

It would be nice if the header on the page would lock so that one doesn't have to scroll all the way back to the top to select new posts off the menu. Most software have the menus lock. It's always been a pain to get back to new posts, etc.

And it is the adults that subdivide the boys into patrols so they can control them better.

Chili without meat is called Chili Chili with meat is called Chili con carne. And if one has hunters dropping a beef producer in your neighbor's hard, better be calling the police.

6. Under the supervision of your merit badge counselor, do THREE of the following:  a. Paint a wall or ceiling.  b. Repair or replace damaged tile, linoleum, or vinyl flooring.  c. Install drapery or curtain rods and then hang drapes or curtains.  d. Replace window blind cords.  e. Repair or replace a window sash cord.  f. Reinforce a picture frame.  g. Mend an object made of china, glass, or pottery. UNDER THE SUPERVISION of your MB counselor..... does that person need to be on-site? Sounds like it. And where does it say any of this has to be done at the scout's home? Maybe Grandma needs a room painted. And I'll guarantee that no one is going to let any scout repair or replace a window sash cord. I bet most don't even know what that is. In this day and age, no one mends anything especially anything made of china, glass or pottery. It gets trashed.

Welcome aboard!

Another dent in the mixed age patrols. Some of the patrol goes, others get left behind. Looks like Web III creep to me.

Hit the antique stores, that's where I pick up a lot of authentic patches. I buy just for the patches. Remember the old community/state strips were for all uniforms, both Cub and Boy.

Okay, we have added siblings, added parents, added... added.... added and finally a ton of added rules to handle all the added "stuff". The patrols of buddies are out the window FOREVER. This is not Boy Scouts, this is "something else" (name it what one wishes.) Well, 50 years ago, when we faced a similar, but not any really big issue, we simply left the program. It's not what we signed on for. We couldn't camp without adult supervision. No problem, dump the uniform and go anyway. Well, it wasn't a real leap of faith to see where the program was going and yes, even without a crystal ball, we could tell scouting was not what it was, nor was there any efforts made to try and keep it that way. It's a brave new world out there, untried, unexplored, a real adventure in survival. Good luck with that.

There's a lot more to the early BSH than just requirements and their explanations. I know that's about all we look at in the BSH, but back in the day, it was more than GTA with explanations.. Updates and revisions are apples and oranges..

Hmmm..... that means the Council can collapse, merge, take over others, change it's name and do all sorts of gyrations to generate CSP revenue, but if I just put the old Community Strip and State Strip on, I don't have to invest in a patch collection to be correct. Is that a fair statement?

If the world changes, or at least the people in it, why are such things as the 10 Commandments, the Bible, Magna Carta, US Constitution, and such still around. Surely as quickly as we re-write history, we could accomplish the re-write of these documents overnight. So here's the Catch-22. which changed first, the people's attitudes or the ideals of these documents? So here's the poser.... Is the BSA going downhill because it didn't change, or because it did?

Welcome. New blood is always good, as long as none of us get any of it on our uniforms.

OMG! Am I supposed to be worried at this point? It's nothing more than casual observation over a 50-60 year time span. Anyone that has that experience who feels differently is more than welcome to challenge my observations. We have always had female DEN MOTHERS in the Cub program. There's a reason for that. But then when certain people start complaining about BOY Scout troops being Webelos III i.e. an extension of Cubs. There's a reason for that. Now that the cycle has come full circle, things seem to be unraveling at the seams. There's a reason for that.

And yet in spite of all the cultural changes that have occurred that mitigated this co-ed change in the BSA program..... it just boils down to Boy Scouts is in today's society. Women leaders makes it even nerdier, i.e. extended Den Mothers.... and now the girls are in there. One can say all they want about how society has changed, but boys in general haven't. Now we have nerdy Boy Scouts on steroids... let the bullying begin. From the 1960's onward, I have watched the feminization of many programs including the BSA. Humanity gives away bits and pieces of all that is precious to it, freedom, loyalty, and many other commodities it once valued more than they do now. After 50-60 years of seeing this process, what BSA has become is no surprise to me. I just wish they would have slid a bit slower so I wouldn't have to quit earlier than I wanted to. If one needs to challenge me on this, not a problem. I can assure you that what the BSA program is today is but a mere shadow of the powerhouse of a program that BSA sported in the 50's and 60's. Can someone even cite a instance of BSA's importance in society in the past 25 years that isn't a public media release by the BSA? At one point, like General Motors, people thought BSA was too big to fail. That conversation is over.

A peaceful expression of a descending views is not civil disobedience.