Basementdweller

the girl scout leaders run the units like kingdoms.....You are good enough to join, you are, you are, you are not. Troops are run on the whim of the leader.... Zero accountability of the unit leaders... Never ever voice an opinion to a leader You are not qualified to be a leader because you are male. You are not from our school/neighborhood/social group/race/religion/financial class you cannot join our troop Oh call the council office they will get back to you with a unit.......Been making that call the first monday of every month now for 2 years. Oh lets do this crafty thing.....Sell cookies..... BTW where did all that cookie and dues money go????? Leader quits the unit is dead. None of the GS troops I have seen own anything of any significance. No tents, outdoor kitchens.....Nothing. The only thing the GSUSA has over the BSA is a national recongizable fundraiser. Beyond that it is a train wreck.....

Don't hold your breath JM..... My daughter has been looking for 2 years now..... Scoutnut.....I disagree with about 90% of what ya said.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

OH CRAP..... We don't have enough tents......What a fantastic problem to have. going to have to sort out the patrol boxes too.... I wonder what the PLC is doing tonight.

differences in the GSA to BSA Local option for membership.....Because of the color of our skin, School she attends, home address and age. My daughter has been denied membership in several troops. No male leaders permitted locally. Both men and women are welcome in the BSA

Got 4 more last night....apps and paid....had more high level of interest from 20 or so more. I have doubled the size of the troop with 3 nights of investment..... We are going to need to change the format of Septembers campout to new scouts first outing... Should be fun....

Q.....but what parent lets a 12 year old have a computer in their room? and enough privacy to be able to create a skype account, and have a long enough discussion with the man for him to think it was safe to ask that sort of a question. We have a computer my kids can use.....All of the traffic thru the router is logged to my computer......The web camera on the laptop they use has been mechanically deactivated in a permanent manner. the laptop is located in a position in the main room of the house where I can see the screen while watching TV. I have the passwords to all of their online game accounts and email accounts. If one of them starts acting in a questionable manner I will go check the accounts to see if anything is going on. and I will check the url log and see if they are going places they shouldn't. Smart phones.....Neither of my kids have phones dumb or smart, As a parent I would not cave in to the pressure for something as nonessential as a phone......For that matter my kids will never be part of the isheep crowd as long as I am paying for it.......

Life with one is tough enough.....why in the world would a fellow want more.

I was alone. Put up a tent beside my table, had my backpack, Two boards with 8x10's of my boys in action. on the table had my backpack stove with a pot on it and a little dry ice in it... I smiled a lot...asked boys looking at the pictures if they like to shoot rifles or rappel.... I had a single page hand out with a summary of our activity plans with a month on them, place, time for meeting...Rough cost and how were gonna have the scout pay for it. My CC and current SM both told me it was a waste of time and they wouldn't participate. handed him the applications and fees from the first two nights last night.....Not a word. Now hopefully the boys will actually show up to the meeting..... I have all their numbers and was considering calling them to remind them of the meeting.....

Who else is to blame here????? The parents, you bet your behinds. What 12 year old has a computer with a webcam in their room or somewhere secluded????? What 12 year old has a skype account???? Don't get me wrong the guy is a dirt bag until proven other wise.

Bottom line is they are a parent and not subject to the any membership rules of the BSA.

CC your talking about gifts. Just different than what is being discussed.

over the years, I have earned hundreds of belt loops, earned the AOL 4 times now, countless merit badges, Tenderfoot rank a number of times as well as second and first class. The only difference between me and the boys is they get the patch and it gets written down. So is it recognition you are chasing????

So fred who is pushing to do stuff with other troops????? You could just tell the Pack your worried about to take a flying leap???? I recruited from an intermediate school on Monday night.....got 6 boys. the following night at a middle school got 4 more...I have one more open house tomorrow night....Hope to get 5....that will nearly double the size of the troop.

So how soon before every merit badge is expected to have an associated token gift.

It is no big deal. Far as anyone knows the other mom is a family friend or babysiter. Remember the boys will take their cue off of you. Don't make it a big deal and it won't be. I would not get involved in any of the rumour mongering either. A polite "It really isn't my business and shouldn't be yours either" works just fine.

So who is going to blink first? National or Local Councils

Skip the formal agenda.... People will wonder in during the entire sign up period then ya have to start over...Our runs from 6 till 8 on a thursday night. The disply boards and stuff is great and we do the same thing. We have a leader take a group of 3 or so familys and take them all the way thru the process. filing out the app, payin, scout accounts, calendar, how cub scouts works.... usually half an hour per group. We have the pack boys entertain the new scouts and sibs... Afterwards they are introduced to their den leader for the year and they give them their talk.. We have about 10 pack leaders ready to go as folks filter in. lots of tables and chairs... We do the school open house as well, just did two....Looks like I got 6 new boy scouts, paid and apps compelte, and cubs lots of interest...we will see thursday when we have sign up night at the church.

What you guys are doing is completely different than AL. She is giving a merit badge then adding on something to that.... The boys do that sort of thing all the time..... The boys give the golden slushie award......It involves the max number of sour squirts consumed and keeping it down at summer camp....A gold spray painted plastic cup. 14 was the number to beat if the bragging is true.

On this forum we read of Packs complaining that the Troop doesn't support them with Den Chiefs, Camping or XYZ. Why should they if they den is going shopping for troops?????? While I agree that every troop isn't for every boy. I like the sense of community that a feeder Pack brings to the CO's BSA organization. The cubs know the boy scouts, they know the SM.....An Easy transition. We retain 90% for the first year and we begin losing boys in middle school to sports and band..... We had a boy leave us for a Parlor Troop, thats fine, he doesn't like to camp. they camp 3 times a year. We camp 10 and two months in cabins. Fred you posted this in the previous thread. "- Drop the Cub Scout "graduation" idea. It's just an excuse to leave. - Make Cub Scouts / Boy Scouts a continuous progression. - Drop the need to fill out a new form to join a boy scout troop. It's just the next step. - Drop the Arrow Of Light being the Cub Scout highest award, instead it's just the award at the end of the Webelos year. Like changing from Cub Scouts earning their current rank to the Boy Scouts earning their next rank." 1. it is over bearing parents that push the graduation idea....My new CM is such a person. I agree with this point. 2. Our troop and Pack are nearly at this point....Again the new CM does not see it this way. 3. It is a different organization.....Till all of the bank accounts, committees and such are merged I don't see how this can be changed. 4. Again over bearing over blown pomp and circumstance for the parents. It is just another award, the boys don't care..... We give career arrows, I put a ton of work into them as a keepsake, on more than a couple of occasions the boys break them up immediately after the ceremony....

This is Boy Scouting right????

Folks ya missed the point... Duh, what did he think would happen????

Ya know that is ok if that is how it works out.... It will clean the list up.

Conversely.....If you took the probably $1 donation you keep 100% of it....

couple of years ago I was recruited as membership chair..... Thru advice from eamon and others decided it was too much work and honestly I would rather just work with the scouts..... Too much adult political BS

Ahhhh, Selfish leaders......Who pays the price? The boys do I applaud him for writing the letter, but it should have included a letter of resignation as well. Instead the CO gets threatened. But before he sat down to write the letter he needed to look at the price that was going to be paid and who was going to pay it.