resqman

~~ Most packs have fundraisers and use the money to defray the costs to the scouts. Lots of different ways to apply the money to the various scouts or activities. A scout "earns" a portion of the fund raising money based on time spent fundraising vs money collected. If a family members participate they can "earn" X hours wage to apply to scout account. Yeah, much discussion about scout accounts... Some packs buy all/some of the awards, patches, etc. from fundraising. Some only buy a certain amount and the scout buys the rest. I have heard of packs only buying up to X number of belt loops per scout due to budget. More than X earned and the scout family pays for the "overage". Most packs require the scout to pay for the re-charter fees. That way they have a stake in the pack and are more likely to participate. All activities cost money. If a scout joined a sports team, band, marshal arts program or any other activity there is a fee. Scouting is no different. $35-$50 a year is cheap for what most scouts get from the program. Likely your pack families will complain because there was No fee now there is Some fee. Recommend Pack leadership make a presentation at the Pack meeting explaining the CO funded everything in the past and cannot now. As a result, the families will have to either pay out of pocket and/or participate in fundraising. Alternately the program can be cut back. Having a large visual of the budget to display so people understand where the money is being spent will help them to be OK with the change. If they see that $35 goes to council for re-charting, $15 is spent on Pinewood Derby, $20 is spent on Blue & Gold, $10 on Awards, and $20 spent on Den craft supplies, they can better accept the difference between $0 and $100. Maybe they will surprised at how much you are able to do for so little. Most dens charges dues while some get an allowance from the Pack budget. Some parents like paying Den fees because they feel their money is going to their son instead of general funding. Others prefer paying one time to the Pack and letting the pack handle the distribution. What ever works. I know I spent at least $5 per den meeting and we met 3 times a month. I collected den fees but undercharged and funded about half out my pocket. But that was my choice. Our Pack held a raffle each Pack meeting. Someone went to the Dollar store and spent about $10 bucks buying stuff. Tickets were sold to the scouts for $1 or 3 tickets for $2 or some other ratio I don't recall. At end of meeting ticket numbers were called out and prizes awarded. We had 50-60 scouts in the pack and always sold way more than 10 tickets to cover cost of prizes. You will have to adjust according to the pack size. There are as many ways to collect fees and spend money as their are Packs. Your pack is going through a change and there will be complaints no matter what specific details you finally decide upon because it is not the same as before. Oh well.

The boys really enjoyed a cooking challenge. Troop supplied the food. Scouts did not know what they would get and had to cook something based on what they were provided. Did it two different ways. One time each patrol was given basically the same ingredients but had to cook the using the specified method. One patrol had to use a box oven. One patrol was provided a propane turkey fryer, pot and oil. One patrol was provided an iron skillet and propane burner. Each patrol was given fish filets, potatoes, onions, and a bread mix that would work with their cooking style. The fryer people were given fry batter for the fish and hush puppy makings. The box oven patrol got ingredients to bake rolls and bread crumbs. The iron skillet was given something else. Each patrol cooked their food and then traded to see how it tasted when cooked using a different method. The next time the troop filled a picnic table with food. All scouts were given 5 minutes to look at all the food on the table. The patrols were told to decide what food stuffs they wanted and build a menu. Then the twist. The SPL asked the PL to come select one item form the table. Then the PL from the next patrol selected an item. Then the third PL selected an item. They continued to select items from the table until they were satisfied. The problem became the other patrols may have selected the item you had on your menu and the patrol had to shift the menu/recipes to fit the remaining ingredients. The table had a box of pasta, box of rice, and potatoes. It had three kinds of bread type makings. It had a variety of canned stuff like tomato paste/sauce, fruits, beans, vegetables, Rotel, etc. Also fresh carrots, onions, etc. So only one patrol could get rice, one pasta, one potatoes. There was enough materials for each patrol to have a starch, a vegetable and a bread. They could make whatever they liked. They had access to Dutch ovens, box ovens, and propane stoves. They also had their normal patrol box of cooking supplies. They were provided with a meat and told what it would be before selections were made. They were given equal access to seasonings, oils, butter, salt, pepper etc. This is not for first time cooks. We had an extensive cooking competition for a year before these occurred. This was the Sat evening meal. The selections were made mid-afternoon so they had time to build fires and necessary prep.

In 1972, 24 merit badges were required for Eagle. Not sure when it got reduced down to 21. I know cooking was removed as one of the three. Not sure what the other two were. I agree there are too many required and not enough optional required for Eagle. Merge the three citizenship badges. That would free up two spaces to encourage more optional badges. When I went to summer camp the first time in 1970's, there was no New Scout program. You were a scout so you did what all the other scouts did, you signed up for merit badges. Having been the First Year Adult Mentor for my troop for 5 years, I saw that the New Scout program did help get the new first year scouts a good foundation. But at the same time, they all lamented that they did not earn any merit badges. The summer camps that offered half day New Scout Programs and allowed the scouts to take an MB or two were better received. We always tried to get the new scouts into Swimming. Then let them choose one other MB. They got the New Scout Program and they got a merit badge so they felt they were on the same level as all the troop members. FCFY is too ambitious. FC18 months is more realistic and the scout still retain the skills. Merit Badges are fun and scouts want to earn some. Limiting earning MBs until FC would be detrimental to the program.

Parents are expected to retrieve their son from the CO parking lot. All the drivers have cell phones. We have the scouts call their parents when they are 30 minutes from the CO. The SM calls a designated parent who sends an email to all parents with the ETA at the parking lot. Most adults have email forwarded to their smart phones so double notification. No scouts are released until the troop trailer is unpacked, gear stowed in the shed or assigned to patrol members to clean and return at the next troop meeting. Only then does the SPL release scouts. Parents might have to wait a few minutes but that is one more incentive for the scouts to complete their tasks in a timely manner because Mom is standing there watching and waiting. Adults volunteered to drive and chaperone all weekend. We are not a shuttle service. If the driver does not have their son in the car, then it becomes a YP issue when the driver only has 1 scout in the car.

I attended camp as a scout numerous times, later as staff for a couple of seasons and as adult I accompanied the troop to 5 different scout camps over 6 years. The purpose of camp varies depending on the scout and his needs. For many of the Webelos who crossed over just a couple of months before, this is the first time they have been away from their parents for more than a weekend. The first weekend campout is often the first time many have been away from their parents overnight. To spend an entire week with no communication with their parents is a big deal. Granted Tuesday afternoon/evening is when most of the first year campers get weepy and homesick. Once they overcome their first bout of homesickness, the rest of the week is about enjoying the personal freedom and fun of learning new skills. While it not be one of the stated goals for the boys, I can tell you that once a scout has spent a week away from his parents, he is a different person. He may not be able to articulate what is different, but it shows in his general demeanor. The scouts often form new or deeper friendships. They cant go running to their parents and normal support system. They have to rely on themselves and fellow scouts. That first week of summer camp often turns haphazard patrols mates into strong bonds. Bonds that serve them well the rest of the time with the troop. I always strongly encourage first year scouts to attend. The troop has a scholarship program because we know the scout that does not attend summer camp is unlikely to stay with scouting. Some scouts its about having to eat the food that is available. No amount of whining and complaining gets them a fast food fix. They either go hungry or eat camp food. Often they find that they like the new menu items. The picky eaters are still picky, but they usually broaden their palate. It is a much needed growth experience to face your fear of strange stuff and survive. Even it is only something as simple as uncommon food. This is the often the first time that scouts have some money and no one to tell them how to budget or spend it. Lots of trips to the trading post to buy something, anything just because they can. Some are out of money by Wednesday while others take money home. Nothing like running out of money before the trip to teach a lesson in budgeting. Don't see that listed as a benefit on any camp websites. Camps are large enough that scouts have to walk and navigate their way to the other side of the camp. The buddy system is in effect as much as possible but with scouts all attending different MBs at different times, they often have to get themselves to the class. No adult, no peer, just themselves. Scouts 12 and under are still in middle school and often have never had the freedom/responsibility of getting themselves somewhere on time. Keeping track of time, planning routes through unfamiliar trails and paths, planning side trips to the trading post, walking with your buddy to the fishing hole, etc. Skills that todays youth never practice in the mommy minivan scheduled world of today. The merit badge classes do teach skills. As adults we often desire for the scouts to have a complete mastery of the subject and skill set. If you look at the purpose of merit badges, its to INTRODUCE the topic to the scout. The introduction has enough depth to help the scout better understand the topic and have actually participated. Even though not all staff members are as proficient in the subject matter or teaching as adults would like, the scouts do learn. They do not become experts but that is not the intended goal of the program. Most camps do offer merit badges that would be difficult for a single scout to arrange without help. While your neighbor may have a canoe, they probably don't have the knowledge to teach a mb class. Even if they have the skill, most neighbors are not likely to take a boy out three or four times just to practice. For many scouts, it is the first time they have really taking any formalized swimming lessons. I have seen many boys enter summer camp a non-swimmer and leave a swimmer. A true life skill accomplished. Are many camps MB factories? Sure. That doesn't make it bad. The goal of scouting is for the scout to grow and learn. It is not about becoming the worlds next best outdoors survival demi-god. Camps that don't have dining halls can help scouts to strengthen their cooking skills. Eleven months of the year scouts get to practice cooking on weekend camping trips. A good troop program can easily produce scouts with good cooking skills. Seen it happen for many scouts in the troop I serve. Cooking and serving every meal three times a day for a week teaches more than cooking. I understand. It also teaches time management, planning, cooperation and a host of other skills. I applaud troops and camps that take advantage of that opportunity. Camp gives scouts a chance to see other scouts scouting. Not just in the manner their own troop Scouts, but that scouting has many variations. Seeing other scouts from a broad selection of soci-economic backgrounds shows them that scouting works in many ways. That just because your troop does it a certain way, does not mean that is the only way. It helps scouts look at their own troop with new eyes and may encourage a scout to bring new ideas to a PLC meeting. One summer the troop shared a campsite with another troop. Both troops had a first hand, close up experience in watching how similar and yet different the troops behaved. The adult leadership operated differently but not in opposition to each other. There were tasks the other troop could do better while there were tasks our troop seemed to do better. The general competition of camping together encouraged the boy leadership to step it up a little bit and work a little harder at making their troop do better. I had to learn Morse code or semaphore to earn Second Class as a boy. It is a use it or lose skill set. Haven't needed to use either during the last 40 years. As an adult, it would be fun to be able to know a second language, but not of enough to encourage me to follow through and become proficient. It was offered at a summer camp as part of the 2010 centennial badges. While we often speak about how scouting is for the boys, there is something there for adults or we would not stick with it. Camps give me a chance to help not just the scouts in my troop but other troops as well. I often hangout at the handicraft center and act as a "teachers aid" for the handicraft classes. While sitting at a picnic table whittling, scouts often wander up and ask how to whittle. The next day they meet me at the table with a knife and whittling blank from the trading post. The find me later in the week to show off what they carved with great pride. They may not have been officially enrolled in woodcarving class, but they found a way to learn the skill anyway. Many camps are merit badge factories. The scouts will list the badges earned during the week because that is how they are expected to respond. What they seldom tell you about is how much they grew and didn't know it. Ask their parents if they got back the same child they sent to camp. Everyone of them will tell you, their son noticeably "grew up" while at camp. Not just the first year, but every year they go to camp. My son attended half a dozen different week long scout summer camps. All very similar but all different. He also attended Philmont, Northern Tier and Florida SeaBase. After each camp, I got back a better son. I got back a more mature young man. Ask him now about what he remembers and its not the merit badges, it was the fun and adventures with his buddies.

Depends on when space is available at your sponsor. I scheduled den meetings on the same day of the week as the Pack meetings so it would be easy to remember. Held den meetings every week there was not a Pack meeting. Some dens meet less often. Initially the den meet at the sponsor but then other group meetings complained about noise in the hallway. My scouts did not make noise in the hallway but not all youth groups were as well managed. I felt it was easier to meet at my house. That way I didn't have to transport supplies. Seems it was Tuesday or Wednesday.

We have done a mixture of low/medium on the same campout. The troop went to a state park with trails and campsites. Friday nite everyone camped at the large group campsite. Sat morn, the Philmont crew packed up and backpacked all day to a new campsite, spent the nite and backpacked back to the parking lot the following morning. They did about 15-20 miles of backpacking and backpack cooking. They planned their meals to emulate Philmont. Philmont shakedown hike. The rest of the troop took a day hike around the top of the mountain, set up an axe yard and taught Totn' Chip to the new scouts, did some Dutch oven cooking, had campfire with skits, etc. Sun morning got up and cooked meals, broke camp and loaded vehicles. The Philmonters returned while the rest of the troop was breaking camp and loading vehicles. They had already broken their campsite, eaten and backpacked back to the main campsite while the remainder of the troop was still messing around with dirty dishes, packing up, and general getting ready to go. Kinda interesting to see the Philmont scouts so perturbed that the rest of the troop was not ready to go. The adults chuckled to themselves that the scouts were now experiencing what the adults felt at the end of every troop campout. All scouts got to have a fun campout and participated at levels appropriate to their skill set.

Merit badges are designed to give scouts an Introduction to a topic, not master the topic. It is a chance for scouts to get acquainted with a topic to help them decide if they want to learn more or find out it is not for them. National often touts that many scouts choose avocations and vocations based on the merit badges they attempt. I can tell you that while I completed all the required merit badges to the rank of Eagle, I probably could not tell you anything that I learned from many of the required "school work" MBs. Did the work to get the check off for the requirement. Did not hold my interest. There are other MBs I completed that I can tell you more about the topic than most people want to know. 40 years later I think I still remember most of lifesaving merit badge. If you look at some of the artwork for some of the badges, you would be hard pressed to identify them. I know my sons earned a few badges because they were in the right place at the right time. Wasn't the goal, they were just having fun. Ask them what the badge is and what they learned they would probably shrug as well. One son is a member of the local indoor rock climbing club. I was part of a rescue squad who taught fire fighters how to rappel and perform high angle rescue. Our family did a lot of rope work and climbing. He knows more about ropes and climbing than most. What he specifically learned for the badge is lost in a haze of a lifetime of enjoying the hobby. His response would probably be that he learned nothing since he had been active in that area. My guess is the badge formalized some of the stuff he had been doing or learned.

I have earned my Triple Crown. Been a participant of Philmont, Sea Base (twice) and Northern Tier. Son has been a participant of Northern Tier and Philmont. His patrol took scuba lessons locally and planned a week long dive adventure to the Bahamas. Dived minimum 3 times a day plus night dives. Did not earn the Triple Crown because they planned a trip outside of Sea Base. He doesn't care he doesn't have the triple crown patch. He just remembers the fun of the adventure. The rest of his life he can tell stories about diving for a week in the Bahamas. Think anyone will ask or care that is was not thru Sea Base? As a lad, my Explorer Post spent spring break at Shiloh National Battlefield. We hiked every trail there and earned the Veteran Hiker award. No one asks or cares that it is not a BSA National High Adventure Base. I remember the fun and challenge. High Adventure is doing something besides a weekend campout. It is planning, preparing and participating in an adventure. Patches and recognition are secondary. During the planning, traveling, and participating, the scouts will be challenged. They will learn and grow. They will have something to look back on years later. Don't let the big 3 national HA bases limit you and your scouts. There are lots of places the scouts can plan to visit for a week or more and test themselves. The national bases are fun and challenging. Within the scouting world, they are recognized and other scouts will give you respect because you have been. Over a lifetime, planning and executing a high adventure outside of the high adventure bases will be at least if not more memorable to the lads. Don't be afraid to look outside the big 3.

Minimum age for a scout is 14 if attending thru the Northern Tier High Adventure base. You got a couple of years if he is a Webelos now. Went in 2010. We had too many for one crew and but were scrambling to find enough to meet the minimum for 2 crews. As mentioned, we announced at Round Table and let council staff know we were interested in taking on more scouts. Northern Tier also has a waiting list kind of thing where you let them know you are willing to take on another scout and they pass on names of people who are singles or doubles that are looking to attend but their troop/council is not. Cost varies widely depending on your location. We had to fly in the day before, spend the night in a hotel, and then charter a 5 hour bus ride to get to the base. Travel costs were significant for us. Add in a crew T-shirt, boots, crew first aid kit, WFA training class, maps, map cases, fishing licenses and costs were about $2000 per attendee.

The book referenced in the article is not the current standard BSA handbook. Yes, the current handbook is still necessary. The standard response in our troop is ask your PL or look in the handbook. If you smartphone dies during the weekend, how are you going to figure out how to tie the knot, sharpen the knife, pitch the tent, bandage the wound. Read the handbook.

I know an ASM who was very involved with the BSA troop. He had two sons who were active and eventually both earned the rank of Eagle. He had two younger children, one son and one daughter. He was a den leader and Cubmaster for his younger son. He and his wife joined/formed a Girl Scout troop. Girl Scouts do not like men in the organization. He took all the GS training he could so that he would know the GS way of doing things. He hoped it would show that he was serious about following the GS methods and aims and not just running a female BSA troop. There was a third adult leader for the GS troop he was involved with. She did not really want him around and it created a bunch of drama. Not sure if they ever completely worked out all the drama. He wanted his daughter to have the best scouting experience he could provide for her since he had been so involved for his sons. The wife/mother had been actively involved with the BSA troop and worked part-time at the BSA council office. She was dual enrolled in both BSA and GSUSA. I can see where parents who have both gender children would want to be dual enrolled to help scouting provide a quality program.

"What I'm trying to say is that uniforming is just one method of Scouting and not the be-all-end-all of what we do. It's very important but kind of a waste of time, in my opinion, to make a special effort to tell a woman to tuck in her shirt. There's probably several factors there that you don't want to mess around with...know what I"m saying?" Why should we treat women differently? Why do they get a pass on wearing the uniform properly? Yes, it is a volunteer organization. Yes, their help is appreaciated. If they are a member, they need to follow the rules just like all other members. If women feel they are being singled out for improper uniforming, it is because they are improperly uniformed, not because they are women. Many male members also feel the uniforms do not flatter their particular body shape. Oh well. The uniform teaches a number of life lessons. People are treated differently based on the way they present themselves. People treat you differently if you are wearing a business suit vs. sweat pants and a T-shirt. Or for a female version wearing a nice dress vs. sweat pants and a T-shirt. Wearing the uniform correctly teaches scouts that their appearance does matter. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. As stated before, all the uniform questions are the same. I don't like to wear the uniform correctly for some particular reason and want someone on the forum to agree that is OK for me to wear it correctly. No. It is not Ok. Wear it correctly, wear it often.

When was the good ole days? 20's, 50's, 70's, 90's? Very little is the same in the world today as it was 30 or more years ago. Not just Scouting but all activities. Was it better then? Well it was different then. I know we used a military surplus equipment. Not because it was better, but because it was available and relatively cheap. There not were camping supply speicialty stores on every corner like today. There wasn't as much gear to buy or worry about not having. It just didn't exist. Instead of having a specific multi-layer jacket of an outer shell, inner jacket, and liner, we just had a coat. If it was really cold we wore a sweater or a sweat shirt. Military ponchos were the only kind of rain gear available. Heavy and about as useless as any poncho. We can ramble on about how the youth used to lead the program and adults run everything today. Well...it still depends on the troop culture. I am sure you could find many adult lead troops 30+ years ago. Were things better when I was scout in the 70's? There were what they were and my troop was what it was. Good or bad, that was my scouting experience. We were just a bunch of goofy kids who wanted to go out and have fun and see if we could find an adventure. We loaded up the station wagons and the dads drove us out to the mountains or country and we camped. We thought we were doing something fun. We didn't worry about weather we were learning leadership, or life skills or whatever other buzzword of the day. We were having fun playing with sticks, rocks and mud. We would scramble over areas that were difficult and get skinned knees. We did what all kids have done since the beginning of time. We picked on each other, we told stuipd jokes, laughed, farted, and whinned about inconsequential stuff. No one was writing down the stuff my son's troop does. There is no written record of how the boys felt about their leadership-team building experiences. Its just a bunch of goofy boys looking to have some fun. Along the way there are some merit badges that get down, some rank advancement gets checked off, but mostly an opportunity for young men to get away from their everyday life and have a chance to try something different. Scouting does not have to be as scripted, documented and analyzed as we discuss on this board. People come here to argue the finer points. We need to sometimes back off just a little and go out and play.

Phone coverage? When I was a scout the only phones were land lines. There was a phone bolted to the wall in the kitchen. The one and only phone in the home. CB radios in the adult cars to keep the convoy headed in the right direction to and fro campouts. Once you pulled out the Church parking lot, no communication until we returned Sunday. Troop rule forbade use of stoves. All cooking was over open fires.

MLK weekend council camp along the North Carolina coast holds a 3 day mini-summer camp style merit badge weekend. Typical evening temps are under 32. For southern lads who may see couple inches of snow once every 5 years or so, that is cold weather camping. Troop arrived on Friday night with temps expected to be in the teens. Camp Staff offered to put the troop in the mess hall for the evening if we felt it necessary. Scouts had packed and prepared for cold weather camping. They declined the camp staff offer. All scouts and adults slept in nylon 3 season tents all weekend. 12 degrees Friday nite. Doubled to 25 degrees Sat nite. Badge of honor for the scouts. Troop policy is the adults are expected do everything the scouts are expected to do. No special priviledges for adults other than coffee. Any adult sleeping in a car would be laughed at by rest of the troop.

Probably gets lots of giggles and comments but as an exercise in "lateral thinking" it would be good.

Maybe not so much a closed group but may kinda taken back that people outside of scouting still think scouting is worthwhile. So much press that tends to show scouting as out of touch with current social mores, it is suprising that people do recognize that scouting is not a bad thing. As adult leaders, we see young boys enter scouting and with a very short time take on responsibiilty. We see first hand what a real impact scouting has on those involved. We see a value for not only our own sons but the entire next generation. I am not sure BSA National does an effective job at selling that msg to the public. Most of the public I deal with outside of scouting have a generally positive attituide towards scouting but don't seem to understand that scouting is much more than first aid, knots, and helping old ladies across the street. I would like to see National have two marketing campaigns. One geared towards boys showing that scouting is fun and adventure and second towards adults explaining it is fun with the purpose of growing boys into responsible adults.

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Like many projects this was driven by one adult leader. He found reasons to visit Noah during long bouts of treatment that kept him away from the troop. Blake Phillips contacted the media and council to make things happen. Noah has been battling cancer for years but when it became apparent that Noah would likely pass within weeks, Blake stepped up and made things happen. While the council sent a representative to the ceremony, it was mainly due to Blake's efforts to be a good friend to an ailing boy that made things happen in under a weeks time. If you see a need in your area, you can make it happen regardless of District or Council participation.

Adults act as a patrol. Use the same cost allotment as the boys when buying food. Cooking competition is held during every campout for the Saturday evening meal. PLC sets the theme. Patrols plan menu, buy food and cook to meet the theme. Started out a few adventurous adults would wander around and sample patrol meals. Very quickly patrols decided to make a presentation plate and deliver to the adult area. Troop rules are no Ramin, no poptarts, no hotdogs. Troop has at least one dutch oven for every patrol. Box oven making and cooking presentations are given annually. Level of cooking improved dramatically within 3 months of themed competition.

Noah Spivey, 17 yr old Life Scout stated hospice care this week. The troop and the community completed his Eagle project for Noah this past weekend. A fund has been started to help pay uniform, summer camp and assorted other scout related costs for scouts in need as his request. The local news media has two stories on the lad. If you would be interested in donating to the Noah Fund, please follow the bottom link. The first three links are new media coverage of Noah from this week. http://www.wral.com/raleigh-boy-scout-battling-cancer-receives-high-honor/13409928/ http://www.wral.com/community-rallies-to-help-raleigh-teen-s-vision-become-reality/13421935/ http://www.wral.com/news/local/image_gallery/13421909/ http://www.ocscouts.org/noah-spivey-fund/

I disagree. If a scout feels a rule needs to be changed, then find out what it takes to get a troop rule changed. It may be that some rules are not up for debate. Then the scout can decide to change troops or give up the battle. Many troop rules were made when a scout did something stupid. Usually an adult decides it was too much trouble to deal with the consequences and drives a new troop rule through the Troop Committee. Most often the 12 points of the Scout Law cover most problems. Most troop rules are kinda like Hate Crime Laws. It is illegal to kill a someone due to a specific demographic. Redundant law since it is illegal to kill anyone, regardless of other demographics. Ask the adult leadership to explain how the offending troop rule is needed beyond the 12 points. Maybe creating a seperate troop "certification" for fixed blades would be a solution. Scouts must earn Totn Chip. Then they must earn the troop Sheathed Knife award before carrying and using.

The one advantage a lad has with an invovled parent is he always knows he has a ride to the meeting/activity/event. The scout does not have to be as diligent about sharing the troop calendar with his parents because the parents are already modifing the family calendar to ensure the scout can participate. All the scouts in my sons patrol have/had at least one parent involved in the troop as an ASM or Committe Member. All earned the rank of Eagle around age 17-17.5. Most will turn 18 after the first of the year but did not see a strong reason to pay a years dues for a few months so most have dropped out as of the first of the year. I am not sure we pushed our sons any harder to earn advancement as non-involved parents but I know we helped our sons be aware of the potential for advancement opportunties of all the various events available to them. I know one district camperee that the troop did not attend but both of my sons attended in order to complete most of the requirements for Emergency Preparedness MB. One son was also able to complete several T, 2nd and 1st class requirements that he would have had to wait months to complete. The drawback to the scouts can be that they frequently have a parent nearby that is keeping an extra eye on them. That means they do not have the same scouting experience of going away for the weekend and being totally away from the family support system. Even if they never interact with their parent, they know in the back of their mind, that if it really gets bad, Mom/Dad is their to help out.

Wow! Just wow! So many issues with that troop. I agree that you should be happy your son choose a different troop. You might just send a friendly reminder to all "your" cub scouts that there are lots of troops all with different cultures. Just because you join one, doesnt mean you have to stay with that one.