qwazse

Training: The better trained moves to the "top of the list." This varies with the activity. Aquatics would bump me up. Shooting sports, down. Most folks self-select. So, this hasn't really been a problem.

My sympathies to the family. Whatever it is must be profoundly discouraging. How many patrols do you have? If just three, encourage the ASPL to step up, but ask the PLs to share some of his responsibilities. Still, allow him to say know if he's certain this was not what he signed up for. More patrols than three? I can see why it might intimidate a young scout. The ASPL should step up at least for that week and ask the boys to help him choose a new SPL. Hold interim elections. Do not let the SM and Committee appoint someone. They may however ask certain boys if they would run again. This is the boy's problem to solve.

Any and all means! Step 1. Research your market. Have you an estimate of how many children that would mean? Talk to your COR if you're fuzzy on those numbers. Step 2. Require a nominal registration fee. Say, $10 per guest racer. Then, at the race, provide a "coupon" for a discount of the same value on registration fee if the boy (or girl, since 2018 is not that far away) signs on for the year at the next den or pack meeting. Step 3. After action, review. Figure out what percent of your "market" was recruited. Estimate if the market will grow or shrink next year. (In our church, there are many of one age, but not so many of the next younger age.) Determine if you would like to try it again next year.

Got to chat to Son #1 about this. He was largely encouraged by the news, as were a number of (fairly conservative) college students who I talked to last night. To be honest, it's more about the fun. Lots of us were tired of hearing from GS/USA members who weren't having fun (unless they pushed hard against a system that constrained them). Then the guys come back from world Jambo having fun with coeds. Troops who partner with mixed crews seem to have fun. My crew has less fun when it's all one or the other sex, more when the sexes are balanced. Fun does translate into money. So, I'll not deny that as part of the issue. How this works in the Czech Republic (which allows similar local sponsor-based decisions on the make-up of its units): everybody attends district events. So, the scouts in co-Ed groups get to meet those in unisex units. They all get to compare notes, and it's fun.

unless their brothers come in droves. Then there will be more boys for the low, low price of some girls. That's the gambit.

So, two years from now, the 14-17 year old females who might join my crew could join your troop. (Spare me the "separate program" flim-flam. ) If your CO and parents and maybe yourself are going to be "welcoming girls" into the Boy Scout, what will you have to say about venturing? Will it be necessary? Superfluous?

Instead of a DL+ADL model, concerned packs in an approving CO will register a DLboys+DLgirls model. The two dens will happen to meet at the same time and same location. No way BSA is going to cross the CO boundary to encourage anything different.

If they will come and sing for it, let them claim it!

Annual reports ... financial statements ... the juice is in the footnotes (so I teach my Sunday School kids). Not just BSA ... every youth organization in the US faces aggressive litigation on a number of fronts. BSA is merely the whale by virtue of its large membership, reach across multiple communities, prolonged activities in isolated locations, and meticulous record-keeping back in an era when there was no authority on exactly how to handle incidents.

Lord have mercy on us all.

I could tell you why but it would involve a series of expletives book-ending "... self-absorbed control freeks ..."

I've been through this split-and-remerge cycle and it can amount to wasted time and missed opportunities. Unless you have other COs in the neighborhood clamoring to launch a program for their boys, one of the troops will be under-supported ... only hurting those boys. It really is a second-best strategy. Better to get the existing guys into four patrols and maybe a venture patrol/leadership corps. Slap some JASM patches on those former SPLs. Give them the stats on the pack and ask some of them to consider, upon turning 18, being the kind of ASM who can coach crossover adults about "what it was like." Basically, "brace for impact" by having a couple of decent and stable patrols with the goal of being the example of the new scout patrol, and possibly recruiting from them as their patrol members move up.

@@pchadbo, you might have the problem of leading a sated horse to water. If that is the case, as a UC, your hands are tied. If there's a troop in your district that is exemplary, you might want to offer for the two units to try setting up a joint activity. You might want to see if folks will pitch in to send PL's to NYLT. Other than that, you're kinda stuck. If folks are somewhat open minded -- even if they aren't gun-ho like the COR, you might want to ask around for someone with a big old field and tell the patrols they can plan a camp there on condition they set up on each corner (or on a 300' radius if the field is really really big) with the SMs in the middle and SPL/ASPL wherever they choose. The weekend would be basically a Brownsea reenactment. If the SM doesn't want to play it that way, the field won't be available. Just say the owner is a bit "old school" and has certain expectations when he invites scouts on the property. Whatever you do, be direct in your intentions. You will tick off the SM if you try to be subtle. Be clear that you don't see eye to eye, you just want him to get the most out of the program, but if your vision is out of his comfort zone, you'll leave it between him and the CO as to what kind of program they want to deliver out of their house.

Shame. The revised AoL program has worked pretty well in getting parents crossing over comfortable with life in our troop. The boys ran the CoH nicely, and I think they made a good impression. Certainly the DC's could be excused to perform duties at the pack meetings? Or do the dens only meet on that night as well?

Well, a scout with a the same 18th birthday but in a more nimble district who provides EBORs within that month (say, on July 31st) would not qualify although having also done all the WORK -- unless you are arguing that waiting longer for adults to convene is so much more arduous as to be Palm-worthy. I expect there to be a few amusing Eagle recognition dinners this year.

You're in good company. And from the posts above, I think you have some good examples of ways a boy like you might manage this. So here's an example of what not to do: Scout: I try to go to mass at X church whenever I can. SM: So, how's father John? Still preaching? Scout: Yep, just saw him the other week. SM: Hmm, he sure bounced back from that pancreatic cancer! Bottom line, in all of these conferences even when the conversation is on some other aspect of scouting (e.g., leadership, outdoor manners, participation, etc ..,,), focus on what you did ... Not on things you wish you'd done.

I was playing on "unchurched" because is a term in Evangelifish (the language of Evangelicals) for people who affiliate with a religion/denomination but their involvement is so tenuous that their faith is necessarily built on other cultural influences. I have a funny feeling that the ItsBrian is, according to that definition, "churched", but I was referring to many scouts in our district who do fit that definition. Should ItsBrian set some goals to better do his duty? Well, I should. So, what's good for the goose ... But at the same time, I know my increased presence in a pew is not gonna help matters much. Setting up my hammock in a park and brewing espresso for some resident aliens, or walking through the wilderness with relatives whose faith is alien to me (or maybe that's the other way around), those are what I'd list if I had to give a report to my SM these days. Some friends have come to the conclusion that their duty is making up for lost time with their family (one guy, due to his commitment to his profession, can't remember certain years of his kids' childhood ... he just wasn't home enough). When my kids went out the door, I'd say "Have a nice time, talk to strangers." Risky though that may be, Mrs. Q and I consider that very much to be part of our family's duty. @@ItsBrian, from this side of the internet I have no way if knowing if you really "should do something." Your SM might be way off base, and there's a part of your life that you spend wrestling with the Almighty. In that case, you let him know what you are doing. Or he might be on to something. In that case let him know what one small thing you are starting to do.

First: Yes, it really stinks to have to carry inserted sheets. If a BSHB survives a scout through adulthood, it is a real joy for him to be able to pull it off the shelf and share it with his kids (and the scouts in the unit he may then be leading). There is something authentic about it all being bound in one place. Extra sheets detract from that, IMHO. But ... for Eagle rank, a scout completes the rank application anyway (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-728_WB_fillable.pdf), and all the requirements are on it. Requisite signatures at the bottom. Question for other SMs/CCs: how relevant are initials in the book to you once a boy is a Life rank? Second: No offense taken. We have this a lot. (Here's a thread that shows it http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/27056-get-ready-for-new-requirements-in-faith/). And a lot of boys in our troop (because of their reasons) are unchurched (untempled? unmosqued?). That's okay. I think main thrust of requiring this to be brought up at SMC's is to prevent a scout from being blind-sided by the question at the time of his EBoR. The goal is to ask how you work out your -- not my, nor his, hers, nor anyone else's -- duty to God in everyday life. Your duty to God may have compelled you to steer clear of church. It might involve visiting other places of worship, praying and studying on your own, applying what you've already learned by treating your fellow man more kindly, catching every sunset that you can ... as with most questions like these, be honest, brief, and clear. I might add, as a Christian, I've gained more from listening to boys' discussions on these matters than I have from 10 times the verbiage in sermons and homilies.

@@Karolyne, welcome to the forums. It seems that, numerically, BSA and GS/USA are on the same trajectory. As far as resources go, there won't be much left as camps for both groups are being sold off to pay for professionals. They already have coed competitors, none have "cracked the code." The one thing that any youth movement needs: youth willing to commit to it. Those are getting harder to find.

What's causing you problems? The rest of us who coach Life scouts might like to reassure a boy that there's a stranger on the Internet who feels his pain.

No, but at the time you posted, I was treating the family to dinner at an Argentine steakhouse. The menu - scribbled on a wall size chalk board - was an adventure.Great minds?

... sounds like your contact had a chip on their shoulder about Mormons.My DAC was upbeat about the change. Seems he didn't think boys weren't getting recognized for being so excited about scouting that Eagle was an afterthought. High speed, low drag, was not likely a consideration.

If you get a summer camp that lets you fan out that wide, let us know. The best we managed was about 50 yards when the troop was one patrol, and the boys wanted an open air camp by lake's edge. Regardless, the boys (and adults) had a good understanding to ask permission to enter any campsite besides their own. Another method: at music festivals, our youth group used named clothes pins, and paper plates representing likely locations. Before your leave, move your pin from the "campsite" plate to the appropriate program area. Move it back upon your return.

Admiration. And what Fred said. I think the rule was written for someone like your son ... the general assumption being that a scout like that was developing leadership all along, and that minor things like Eagle project minutiae got in the way of him cinching things up after MB #21.

https://www.alleghenygoatscape.org/ Evidently, they do pretty well against invasive plants. And some ne'r-do-well's have vandalized perimeter fences. I don't think they were rustling .. just liked knotweed, I guess.