Beejeroni

Thanks for the thoughts. Obviously we'd love the option of using the kneejerk reaction to tell them to get a life, and we've probably all felt like hanging up our hats at some point, but when measured against the goal of trying to keep the boys in scouts for the good it does them, we'll pass on those. Tough to argue the point that there seem to be more and more people trying to convince us that scores/ranks/achievements don't matter, when most of us have gotten the rude awakening at some point that they do in fact matter. But although solving that problem is like boiling the ocean, we'll keep awarding rank advancements and merit badges until they tell us we can't anymore! We will discuss the policy of announcing how much a scout owes however, and using that not as a matter of public knowledge but of an indication to have a private discussion about it with that scout and his parents, since for some reason a scout isn't meeting their obligations.

Has anyone ever run into this topic? Someone in our troop recently brought up the suggestion that weekly dues could be a form of hazing, or at least be construed to enable hazing based on the public collection of dues each week and announcement of how much that scout owes. In other words if Johnny hasn't paid his dues and owes $7, then his scouting buddies could razz him about it... i.e. haze him. I tend to look at weekly dues as being an exercise in personal responsibility, but clearly mine is not the only opinion, so I wanted to solicit some other opinions based on what other adult leaders might have encountered. Thanks! Bruce