Stosh

As SM I stay out of the "adult' side of the program. That's the job of the CC. If they don't want to raise money, the boys do things that individuals can pay for or stay home. Were having a winter campout this weekend, Friday's meal is a brown bag of their choice and the rest of the weekend is pretty spartan. It makes no never-mind to me, as an adult I bring my own food. After a couple of "situations" the parents quickly figure out what it's going to take to keep things rolling along and eventually step up to the plate. I find asking parents to take on a "job" they can back out because they don't realize the necessities and expectations of the position. Once they see the need, it is easier for them to step up. We were discussing rides this past week about the outing this weekend. I said I would bring my pickup and haul gear. The parents got their heads together and figured out the rides for the boys. No discussion needed on my part. The alternative was, if you want your boy to go, you need to drive him there yourself. Carpooling is always a good incentive for adult participation.

The question I always pose as UC when dealing with the lack of boys at the higher ages is what is the troop doing for them? No 17 year old scout wants to do the things most troops are focused on doing, new scouts, S->FC skills, leadership for the 12-14 year olds and ..... well nothing much beyond that. Are we short changing our older boys by not letting them do what they want when it comes to real adventure? So here's the options available. 1) Let the numbers dwindle and rave how great your program is because you have produced 1 or 2 eagles now for the past 20 years. Of course those eagles either got them at 15 years old and left or they left and came back at the last minute to get their eagle on their credentials. 2) Send the boys over to Venturing where maybe hanging out with girls might keep them interested. 3) Use the patrol method and have the older boys patrol up and do challenging outings that aren't the same old, same old the troops been doing every year for the past 10 years. 4) Quit making excuses for the boys and find solutions. If the program was worthwhile to them, they won't be looking around for something else more exciting to do. Sorry, but if the unit is not going to provide the adventure that was promised, then quit whining when the boys leave.

PRINCETON, N.J. -- The American public estimates on average that 23% of Americans are gay or lesbian, little changed from Americans' 25% estimate in 2011, and only slightly higher than separate 2002 estimates of the gay and lesbian population. These estimates are many times higher than the 3.8% of the adult population who identified themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender in Gallup Daily tracking in the first four months of this year. An earlier report published in April 2011 by the Williams Institute estimated that 3.8 percent of Americans identified as gay/lesbian, bisexual, or transgender: 1.7 percent as lesbian or gay, 1.8 percent as bisexual, and 0.3 percent as transgender. Sometimes statistics lie, sometimes they don't, but one must at least consider them as part of the conversation. My numbers are not accurate but arbitrary. Is it worth it to the BSA to lose 5%, 10%, 15%, 30%, 50% (Pick one that you can live with) of it's members to accommodate 3.8% of the people? and in light of this transgender issue, .03%? So it begs the question, will BSA destroy itself trying to become "socially acceptable"? I guess they are going to find out. With the decline indicated with the homosexual youth issue, and decline indicated with the homosexual adult issue, is this yet another nail in the coffin?

The Big Mac we pay for is administered at the local McDonalds. The less we let Courtesy Corporation enter into our every day fast food activities the better. I can understand somehow wanting to make a statement about Courtesy Corporations menu, but I doubt these two customers affected by this menu change. The BSA owns the brand, it down the logo, it owns the program and contracts with the various CO to provide it to the public. If a boy looks at the national BSA website and it says this is the way the program is administered, wouldn't it be reasonable that the boy could go to the local CO and get the program promised. A bit of honesty in the PR of the program would be nice. Just sayin'

Sometimes what is NOT written is just as important as what is written.

It's not the program they paid for, why would they continue. This is only the tip of the iceberg. Boy Scouts of America has today become a bait and switch program.

Along with the adult run troop having the SM ban an OA election, there is also a possibility of a boy-led troop not having the OA do elections as well. My former troop contacted the OA to have them come and do an election. The OA person came wearing a school sweatshirt and blue jeans. My SPL let him know that was unacceptable and that he expected the OA person to be in full uniform to set the example for the boys. He told the OA person to make arrangements for the election when he has gotten his uniform in order. The OA never reschedule and the boys never did an election after that either. I have no idea if that ever changed after I left.

Nothing wrong with "cabin" camping in the winter time, especially for the first time out. They will learn about wet cloths and be in an environment where they can dry them out if possible, they can play games and get to know new boys (we invite area Pack Webelos II boys to the event, and if some boy didn't bring enough warm dry clothes, he doesn't get sent home. Some of the toughest winter camps are when the temperatures are just below freezing. The snow melts, the boys get wet and the cold becomes dangerous. Give me -10o because the boys know to be ready.

I always harp on the OATH when it comes to this issue. Listed in order of priority, duty to God, duty to Country, helping other people at all times, and myself physically able, mentally prepared, and morally able to do that. Paper eagles seem to reverse that when one hears them talk about MY eagle and during THEIR ECOH never expressing one word of appreciation for all the scouts ahead of him who helped get him there or the many scouts behind him who did so as well. One of the principles (not aims, not methods, but principles) I emphasize is: Scouting isn't just for you, that's why we have patrols and that's why we have leadership. Other people need to be following you in order for you to be a leader. If you're only in it for yourself, you're in the wrong program. EVERY SMC I do has some variation of this included. There's absolutely no way a scout can be following the Scout Oath if he's only interested in himself and the accolades he garners for himself.

With this change, the whole dynamic of the "Eaglel" as something of value will deteriorate as well. It has already lost some of it's luster and this will only exacerbate the problem. Be Prepared. otherwise be ready to provide TP to wipe their butts too. If one is going to view themselves as a boy but not be a boy, that's not my problem, it's something "he" has to deal with. And before any law suits arise on my horizon I will be long gone. If I have a disruptive ADHD boy in my troop I have the right to have a parent on site to deal with it because it's not part of the BSA program I provide. If I have a handicapped boy in my troop I have the right to have a parent on site to deal with it because it's not part of the BSA program I provide. If I have a TG "boy" in my troop I have the right to have a parent on site to deal with it because it's not part of the BSA program I provide. As a scouter I will do everything possible to accommodate the "boy", but if there is ANY CHANCE i may end up after 45 years of working with youth ending up in court, I will walk away without ever looking back. It just isn't worth it for BSA to play these PC games and expect the membership to walk the tight-rope without any net. I am not singling out the ADHD boy, his situation is. I am not singling out the handicapped boy, his situation is. I am not singling out the TG "boy", "his" situation is. I am not responsible for dealing with these things, If BSA wants these kids in the program, THEY have to make the adjustments, not me. National can be ever so politically correct and make fantasticly warm-fuzzy statements to the press, but it's the boots on the ground that get holding the stick. I am happy with being boots on the ground, but there's no way I'm ever going to hold any stick and responsibility for THEIR decision.

My background is Norwegian and I grew up with all the Norski jokes focused on the dim-witted Ole, Sven and Lars. Of course there was the traditional peasant Lena that kept things exciting. And yet when all the dust settled, I thought those jokes were extremely funny! My favorite: In light of all the racial slurs and making fun of ethnic groups the politically correct manner in which these jokes are to be conveyed would be to put them into an ethnic group that doesn't exist anymore. So with that being said. "Two Philistines walked into a bar one day, Sven and Ole..... "

I wonder how traumatized the boy was to wake up from a nap and see what was going on!!! Who's going to protect the boy from government abuse?

I grew up in an area of heavily Indian influence. The attitude you indicate here is what I normally get from those I associate with. For a long time I was confused as to where the "racist" problem was coming from. It wasn't until I began to see the pattern of a few that grabbed the headlines and raised the consciousness of the masses did I even know racism existed. I worked in a heavily Indian area for many years during college and developed friendships with many in that area. I asked them out of curiosity if they all had "Indian names". Of course they all had Americanized names like John Cloud, etc. I'm sure the Indian sounding names were all made up, but I pressed on with, what would my name be in "Indian". They made up some odd name and when I asked what that meant translated, they said Ugly White Man. That was the end of all my questions. Good times, good memories.

Maybe with today's culture of super heroes the OA might want to consider going this route. After all they are supposed to be the exemplary scouts of the council. Maybe the Indian theme is outdated and no longer intrigues the boys. It surely doesn't do much for our boys beyond the sash and dash routine of today.

People today have glossed over the reality that the law still states that parents of a pregnant minor can have the DNA proven father brought up on statutory rape charges. This will put the boy in the National Sex Offender Database. Parents tend to not do this, but there is still a legal possibility that this can happen. How many times does the die get rolled to get the answer they want and what are the odds that it's not going to be that answer? Everyone takes their chances.

Because being male is toxic, overtly aggressive, dominant, and socially unacceptable. The goal of equality is to make everyone the same i.e. feminine. That's been the agenda now for 50 years. The rise in ADD, ADHD being a male problem attests to the attempt to medicate the problem away. Careers for all and paid child raising industry have become the new norm. The traditional nuclear family has gone the way of the dinosaurs. Ever notice that all the ills we face today as a society have their root cause in the maleness of our culture? Why would the BSA not be a target of disdain in that it promotes the male side of the human species.

In a small town, it takes a while before the flames of fear are fanned in. However, in Maryland an 8 year old can be left alone AT HOME, ALONE, but in Illinois it is 14 years old. This is in the safety of one's own home. Now outside in the yard it's a whole different story. Then there's the 2 block walk to school or when I was that age, everything under 2 miles had to walk. Bus pick up was at least 2 miles from the school. Even then if you lived 2 blocks from someone who did get picked up by the bus, you couldn't walk the two blocks over to his house and get on the bus, you had to walk/bike the 2 miles to school. Today do the schools even have bike racks anymore? I was walking my dog along a street I normally do and a little boy who I had seen playing in his yard on occasion was sitting on the curb watching the world go by. I was on the other side of the street and he called out, "Is your dog friendly?" I said yes and crossed the street so he could pet him. At that point his older sister, went into a blood curdling tirade screaming into the house. It would seem that the little boy was "talking to strangers." The mom came to the door, saw the boy petting my dog, smiled and waved. I waved back and then moved on down the road. It kinda made me think that this propensity for abject terror might have been instilled by the public school system because mom seemed to be good about the whole situation. I'm sure she had seen me many times walking my dog before. The bigger the town/city, the worse it gets. I moved away from my first home a few weeks after my 7th birthday. I vividly remember running all over town, riding bikes, playing with friends, all day long.There was no pre-school, no kindergarten so this was an every-day thing. I thought nothing of it when an elderly gentleman asked my buddy and I if we would go to the store and get him some ice cream. He gave us money, we took off and got him his ice cream. He invited us in to have some, which we did and from that point on we would always wave and be nice to him whenever we saw him. He was a really nice guy, just a bit lonely I suspect. I never started to actually "worry" about personal safety until the mid 1960's with all the racial issues going on. When I lived in San Diego for a while, I did learn what neighborhoods were acceptable for walking after dark and which ones weren't. It wasn't until recent years with the ramped up, hyped up media, did it ever occur to me I might need to conceal carry. As a Be Prepared cautionary measure, I now do as does the Mrs. Some of my children are set up that one knocks and doesn't just walk in as well. Is it old age paranoia? Media hype? Common sense? world is unsafer than before? or what? When in doubt, be prepared. One of the reasons my children are home-schooling the grandkids is they don't trust the security of the school system and they don't want the social paranoia to influence their children. I have already been tasked to teach them how to safely and responsibly own a weapon. Maybe it's going to take a generation or two to take back personal safety responsibility and not rely on schools, government, etc. to do it for us.

As we speak right now, how many Eagle ranked scouts are active in your council? In all my years of association with this council, I know of only 2 maybe 3 boys that stayed active in the troop that Eagled prior to their 17th birthday. Most of the scouts attained Life, abandoned the troop for a year or two and then came back made a major push and got their paper eagle at the last minute before turning 18. That process I have seen repeated over and over again in many troops. Otherwise the the younger boys simply "eagle out" and the ECOH is their AOL equivalent graduation from the program. The term is used a lot in our neck of the woods.

The wearing of the religious medallion and scout knot are BSA approved uniform designations. Earning the medallion/knot is not.

Keep it in mind the check box on the application is filled out by the parents, NOT THE CHILD. It is signed by the parents, NOT THE CHILD. If the parents wish to lie on the application form, so be it, but that is the only thing that is going to apply when the issue of some scouter being accused of something sexually inappropriate. I'm sure the courts will err on the side of the child's welfare, not what some parent checked on the application and the end result is the Scouter is out of scouting and will forever be on the National Sexual Offender Database. Good luck with that. (And where will BSA be in all this? Right there by your side defending you all the way.... Riiiiight!)

I'm not one who tends to be politically correct, and take my lumps for it, but here goes: Some scouts go through the motions, do the requirements, earn the rank, and "eagle out", put such recognition on their college applications and job resumes. They are what I call paper eagles. Some scouts take the Oath and Law seriously, they do the requirements, earn the rank, functioning in leadership throughout those ranks, and in the end take to heart what it means to do one's duty to God and Country and help other people at all times. Those I refer to as Real Eagles. If one has difficulty understanding this, all one has to do is observe the boy for a few minutes. They are easy to tell apart. When a soldier achieves the rank of General and then resigns his commission that rank will become completely useless. When a businessman/woman reaches the level of CEO and then quits, we view that as a total waste of that person's talent. The BSA Branding of the Eagle has become severely tarnished in the second half of the program's existence, but it has not gone unnoticed. Early scouting literature encompasses this problem originating as early as the first few decades of Scouting so it's nothing new. The only difference between back then and now is that what I call paper eagles today they referred to as Parlour Eagles, a term not many can relate to as well as paper eagle. Real Eagles have always been Real Eagles right from the beginning. Eagle Mill units may turn out a lot of Eagle ranked scouts, but the jury is still out on whether or not those scouts are Real Eagles. That question has always been in the forefront of the issue since day one, 100 years ago. For the average observer, the ability to distinguish a Real Eagle from a Parlour Eagle is really not all that difficult.

As funny as this may appear at first, does anyone want to be the SM of the first scout that get pregnant because YPT protocol wasn't in place? They are all boys and they need to be treated equally as such. There is nothing going to protect the adult leaders in YPT because until it gets settled in court, to protect oneself, they have to make arrangements for being co-ed when in fact they say they aren't a co-ed organization. The ice has become too thin that after 45+ years of working with youth, it's time to err on the side of self protection here.

So what's the YPT protocol for "co-ed" units with male SM/ASM's?

I'm kinda sorry I mentioned my paper-route. The point wasn't that newspapers were plentiful back then, the point was I could at age 12 hold down a job and move around town, miles from my home on a bike and didn't need an adult chaperone. By the time I was 14 I could ride my bike out into the rural areas around town and hunt without an adult with me. By the time I was 16, the bike was replaced by the car. Maybe the #1 reason why Little Johnny lives in his parent's basement is because they would be arrested if they don't keep an eye on their captives or the boogie man police are going to sweep in and snatch them up and put them in a more secure facility where they can be watch more closely. It's a real shame the liberties and freedoms kids today have gradually lost over the past 50 years.

I have a number of uniforms that I have bought over the years and they sport the council patch of the year they were purchased. There is no way I'm going to take off an old patch and replace it with a current one that will be outdated in a few weeks. With that being said, I have an old green uniform with the red/white community and state strips on them. From what I have observed around my neck of the woods, one can wear any council patch they wish. One of my uniforms has the centennial patch for my council like the one you are describing for your council. Just wear whatever patch you like and don't worry about it. I have seen old FOS council patches from quite a few years ago as well. Go for it!