Stosh

There's nothing in scouting that some well meaning adult can't screw up.

Snakes aren't poisonous, they are venomous. With no snakes, no bears, where's the adventure?

Everyone has their style. What works for some doesn't work for others. The hierarchical management style has worked for years for some out there. And the collaborative service style works for others. It's not an issue of what's right and wrong, it's an issue of what works for you and what works for the next guy. I've worked with scout groups, community youth groups, and faith-based youth groups. They all work differently under different expectations. A one-size fits all doesn't work. I have a huge billboard I drive by every day. The current message is "Boys & Girls Club a program of character and leadership development." and a phone number. The phone number is not for the council office. Saw a pick truck parked in the restaurant parking lot last Thursday with the huge logo emblazoned on the door K.A.M.O - Kids and Mentors Outdoors. Youth Baseball Association runs from June through July. Fall sports at the schools starts in August. There goes the summer. Like the song in the musical "Gypsy" says, "Ya gotta have a gimmick." What's BSA's gimmick other than everyone doing their own thing? We as adults need to focus a bit more on the purpose of scouting rather than sitting around wondering who's running the show.

Fortran is to mainframes as Basic is to PC's.

If one has 5 boys or 50 boys, if they all recruit one friend the number of boys in the troop will double. As much as I hate math, even this makes sense to me.

Being bummed out about any thing is the first stages of burnout. Too many people just blow it off as a bad day and grit their teeth and press on through. Nope, not gonna work. One of the reasons for my longevity in anything is it is valuable and exciting for everyone involved. If it's not, move on to something that inspires passion instead of sapping it..... and heaven forbid you are not the one being the wet-blanket for others. It's contagious.

Planning can be done by oneself, difficult to "lead" because it's a management of a task process. Training involves instruction of people, the task at hand is for them to learn, not for them to follow you, other than your directions, but not necessarily you per se. Demonstration and other teaching techniques on accomplishing a task? It would be easier if one could program a robot to do precisely what is necessary to accomplish a task, but until then one needs to have people follow directions and focus on the task. It's kinda like the new kiosk ordering system at the fast food restaurant. Pretty hard to lead those kiosks anywhere. I have tried, but often fail to help people understand this difference between leadership and management, but until they have an epiphany, there's not much I can do. I had one fella call me up at 1:00 am to tell me he finally figured it out. Are people there because they want to help you succeed? and you work to offer satisfaction in their work? or is the task (project) the main focus and all these people that show up are the cogs and tools to make it happen?

Welcome from me as well! Not every pack can be a winner, but there are a lot more packs like you have described than what we would all like to see. But I too would focus on my son's experience in the pack. He's there to have fun and if the den leader isn't up to it, then maybe some assistance on your part can spice it up for your son and his friends. If not, there's nothing wrong with sitting in on the den meetings and maybe having his den over to the house for an impromptu gathering at a park or just a walk in the woods. Getting to know the other boys' parents would be another option to strengthen the den. Safety in numbers kinda thing. Don't worry too much about an ineffective pack program, the den is your son's focus, focus with him at the den level. If the current den leader is ineffective, get in line to be the den leader next year. As mentioned, it's for the boys!

Fred, here's where I have difficulty with definitions. Proposing, and then plan and develop it are all words that describe the task of the project. It encompasses no need to lead people. I would find it kinda hard to lead people and yet not be present to do so at the project execution. To me, things that deal with tasks is management of time, talent and resources. Leadership involves people following

I have no idea why you missed it, it's in the fine print of the YPT training as well as the GTA.

I believe this is the clause summer camps use to cover themselves for providing CIT's for MB instruction.

What scout wouldn't want to learn how to start a fire without matches? What scout wouldn't want to learn about skeet shooting competitively? What scout wouldn't want to primitive camp or whitewater canoe? And what about first aid on a rescue level. I would think that many of these subjects could be taught at a High Adventure level that goes beyond the S->FC and even MB level. Maybe foraging in the woods? Anyone for nettle tea? or dandelion salad? Can anyone clean a squirrel, filet a fish or cook a rabbit stew in a Dutch oven? So often we comment about the program being "watered down". Why not develop appropriate curriculum that takes it to the next level. Beans and weenies or Beef Stroganoff? Walking tacos or chicken enchiladas? Cobbler or chocolate chip cookie cheesecake? Starting fire with matches, vs. bow and drill, vs magnesium sticks, vs. magnifying glass, vs. flint and steel, vs. 9-volt battery? Cooking with oak vs. cooking with pine, vs/ charcoal, vs, hickory smoking pork chops, or apple smoking chicken. Monkey bridge over a real river. Plop camping vs. sandbar camping out of a canoe or kayak. Is it any wonder our boys are bored to tears most of the time. Do they even think of these things? I'm sure many of them don't fare that well at home with a microwave. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with modern technology, but if the power goes out, do the boys starve or eat better than when the lights are on?

The Venturing Crew I started back in the late 90's was on the record as "Blackpowder". It was our reenacting Crew. We had no shortage of members. We often took the field as a small company and our CO joined us at national events and fielded a standard sized company. Even when we needed rifles for Memorial Day, we always hand enough.

On a unit level this is the most effective approach, get your friends involved! I also, as a District/Council level, one needs to look at the big picture and not just focus on just unit recruiting, one needs to seek out geographic areas of interest and be prepared to start new units. It's a lot more difficult, but just standing around handing out flyers isn't going to cut it for either the District/Council level nor the unit level.

I'm sure you're looking for a backpack cot, but I have one for canoeing that is lightweight, but I wouldn't want to carry it around all over the place. It's canvas with 4 wood poles like the traditional army cot, but instead it has 4 heavy wire "legs" that cross side-ways and holds the cot open. It is about 3-4" off the ground so it makes an good comfortable cot in a pup tent style shelter. It's just enough off the ground for the old military pup-tent that when it rains the water can flow through and I don't get wet. I'm a bit old school in that the plop camping we do, I like the durability of canvas over nylon. My nylon tents always guarantee I get wet, even with the Kelty 3 man and Kelty 4 man that I currently used for fair weather.

If one is going to be making promises, they had better Be Prepared to be Trustworthy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_57_merit_badges_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)

With the rapid pace of change in the computer world, BSA is always going to be a day late and a dollar short. 20 years ago when I was doing the Computer MB, it was so out-of-date it was pathetic. Even if they were to update it to today's standards, by the middle of next week it's going to be obsolete. It's just the nature of the beast. Just remember, the US put a man on the moon using a slide rule.

To me, handing out flyers is not the same as taking a survey. One needs to have a means of getting feedback from those who are contacted. One cannot rely on simple "advertising" existing programs in the way flyers are intended to do. One needs to get the true pulse of the community being surveyed to find out what it is that will provoke them to inquire further. All the flyers do is tell them of an opportunity and give them the "take it or leave it" option for them to consider. A survey on the other hand will allow them to identify for you what it is that they would like to have beyond the only choice of what is now being offered. If I were to send out a survey to all students in the target area and only 10% of them are genuinely interested in an outdoor program, 40% in STEM and 50% in careers, it will tell me in which basket I ought to be putting my eggs. Without that information one is only guessing at what the "customer" wants. If I'm selling rag dolls and everyone wants Legos, I'm in the wrong business. As mentioned in another of my posts today, I started 42 new units with using real surveys instead of just standing on the street corner handing out flyers. I am a firm believer it would be more beneficial to all to leave the tree standing than wasting my time handing out flyers.

Why then does one bother with scouting? Serious, just set it up as a school "club" and run it the way you wish it to without the added expense of registration, uniforms, etc. etc. etc. and the interference of the "higher ups". If BSA is offering no benefit, what's your return on the dollar? By the way, I'm not being sarcastic or disingenuous here. To me it's a serious question.

When I was working part-time for a council, my primary duty was to help kick off the new and improved Exploring program. Surveys were conducted in all the high schools of the council and through the work of volunteer businesses, these were entered into a database by interests. The interest areas were then compiled by geographic areas and CO's were sought out in those interest areas in the geographic areas and mailings went out to the youth in the respective neighborhoods. In one year's time, I was able to start 42 new Exploring posts some of which are still operational under the now revamped Learning for Life program and skimmed off Explorer general interest posts into the Venturing program. It was a lot of work, but if one wishes to invest the time and talent, one can substantially increase the program with such efforts. That year my numbers put that council at 147% of quota and more than covered the quotas of both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. One of the local high schools in our council does something similar with interest gathering so as to bring in guest speakers to talk to their students about such things as Law Enforcement, Medical, Engineering, Aviation, etc. as career choices. I know how it worked because the same process I learned 40 years ago, I applied for that school's career program. Data like that is invaluable to both the schools and to scouting if they cooperate on the project. With today's technology, it's really not as hard as it was 40 years go.

"Critical mass" is dependent on the structure of the organization. With the patrol method there is never going to be critical mass of more than 6-8 in a "group" (patrol) and that becomes dependent on the leadership instruction of members themselves. 1 adult of average learning might be able to handle 14 people. Professional adults (school teachers, for example) have been trained to handle maybe 20-25 at one time. But young fledgling youth might be able to handle 6-8 if trained. With the patrol method, the numbers don't make a difference because no one is responsible for more than 8 people, 7 plus oneself. Once one gets to 8 patrols with 8 PL's, toss in an SPL to take care of the 8 PL's. So now we get up to 16 patrols, add on an ASPL, and keep adding more and more ASPL's to handle each new group of 8 PL's. No one in the organization is responsible for more than 8 people. 6 boys, 1 PL 36 boys, 6 PL's, 1 SPL 216 boys, 36 PL's, 1 SPL 6 ASPL's Add in Instructors, Scribe, QM, Chap Aide, and a whole host of other Leadership Corps personnel and the workload drops even further yet. And still no one is responsible for more than 6 people at one time. That's the beauty of shared leadership in the Patrol Method. As mentioned above, one is more limited by the size of the CO's meeting facility than by any membership restrictions. Of course all of this is predicated on the idea that genuine leadership and creative management is taught and used throughout the program. One is only limited by how well one does that.

I love the GS/USA thin mints so much I learned how to make them on my own. That way I get them year-around.

Unfortunately someone's grievances need actionable wisdom in order to be usable for the betterment of Scouting. On the other hand, learning from other people's mistakes is far less painful, too. It may sound like a lot of grousing, but in the 10+ years I've been around, it has been because of both the grousing and wisdom that I have learned a lot. Yeah, tempers flare a bit here and there, but for the most part it is one of the better forums on the net. Give it time to build up a callous thicker skin and you'll be able to see the bits and pieces of wisdom even in the expressions of grievances.

Hmmmmm, you have older scouts that really don't like associating with the new guys? That's not what some have been trying to tell me because what you're saying seems to fit my units and those in my neighborhood, too. You try putting all those new guys into existing patrols? How's that working out? There are age limitations for a reason.... they make age appropriate activities applicable.