Sentinel947

Our Troop does OA elections. We've had a handful of Scouts be active in the OA, but for the most part it's a niche thing. Our previous two Scoutmasters never bothered to do the Ordeal so they don't have a window into that world. I'm a brotherhood member, but OA is additional weekends to give up that I'm just not willing to.

Glad to see teenagers are teenagers on both sides of the pond.....

I think part of it is they have no idea what else is out there to do besides the same old stuff. This years calendar is a little better in that regard. We got about 3 unique outings we haven't done before. There's a fine line between nudging without ordering them around. It involves a lot of soft questions. It's harder as an ASM. I gotta move behind the SM and support him. He gives us wider latitude to interact with the PLC, but it's important not to have too many cooks in the kitchen so to speak.

Yup. Been fighting that particular battle for about 5-6 years. Most of our attrition is due to boredom, but getting the PLC to the root of that boredom and to plan activities they want to do has been challenging. Not sure why.

The BSA has a multitude of problems that girls will not solve. Cubs takes way too long and it burns out the parents and the kids. I almost didn't go on to boy scouts as a kid because Cubs was so long and burning. My parents required me to cross over and try Boy Scouts for a few months. That was 12 years ago. So what does the BSA do. Add Lions! That will fix the burnout! There's a ton of untrained leaders running about running terrible programs. What does the BSA do? Move the training online and make it shorter and easier. You don't need a ton of highly trained and experienced leaders, but if you've got a handful of excited energetic newbies in a troop with no institutional knowledge to run things properly, the current training isn't going to fix that. An Adult leader shouldn't be getting to Wood Badge and not grasping the core concepts of the program. Kids are looking for challenging programs that get them out and about. BSA adds stupid requirements like cyber chip to the rank advancement. Great recession and stagnant wage growth making it harder for families to afford children activities. Build the Summit and raise annual dues! The only issue I see adding Girls into BSA that will get fixed is parents who take their sons out of boy scouts because their families are over scheduled and somebody has to make a sacrifice. But lets be frank, how often has that happened in one of our troops that we know of? More with my Scouts, they get bored of Scouting around 13-14 and they decide to specialize in a sport or band because it's fresher and more challenging to them.

Back on subject. The idea of one huge council wide district is absurd. Some Adult leader training is best done online. Youth Protection is fine. But without districts, do they really want to get the entire council together for IOLS? That sounds like a nightmare to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zzs-OvfG8tE

2 months is a long time for Clarke. I hope he's doing well. I've learned so much from him.

In my troop we don't create a crew because the scouts and families haven't asked for it. We have about 70 registered Scouts. 1 SM, 5 ASM's of varying involvement. Why complicate that for something folks haven't even asked for?

I had an interesting take on 21st Century WB. I went to NYLT in 2009 and WB in 2015. I found it useful as it helped me reorient myself from "youth leader" to "adult adviser." I think the single greatest aspect of WB is being around other folks that live and breath Scouting. Those discussions with your Troop Guide or Patrol Members about how your troop does things vs how their troops do things I found very helpful. The Management theory stuff is kind of hit or miss. If you go to Wood Badge to pick up management theory and have seen it before, it's a waste of time.

The BSA has massively oversold Eagle to the detriment of the program. Parents view it as a golden bullet to life success. As for Sydney, its incredibly hard to make organizations change course. My troop took 4 years to adopt patrol method principles fully.

There must be a split in the progressive political spectrum, since we've been accused of being mouth breathing troglodytes for not allowing girls into the program. Not sure how the BSA wins with these people..

The BSA shouldn't be making it's decisions based on what the cookie mafia's leadership thinks. That goes for membership policies or anything else. I don't see the overlap between the GSUSA and the BSA. It's serving different demographics. Plenty of other countries have a Co-ed Scout Association and a Girl Guides Organization. As long as the Cookie mafia is happy running an organization where the girls don't get out in the woods there will always be a small but substantial group of girls that want that experience.

Yea. There is no way the BSA and GSUSA merge. It would involve a reduction of redundant staff..

Shooting the messanger but ThinkProgress is one of the most biased publications in America. Its the left wing version of Brietbart.

Cookie Mafia has to protect it's turf. I'm not sure why the Girl Scouts is concerned, the type of girl who would want to be involved with Boy Scouts is not the same demographic of girls who enjoy Girl Scouts. The day the Boy Scouts program looks like the Girls Scouts program is the day I think 99% of this forum throws in the towel....

No. I imagine that's an ad from an outside T-shirt vendor.

Friends. I joined because my friends did. I stayed in the troop because my friends did. I became an ASM to stay involved in the troop while my younger friends finished. If my friends had quit when I was a youth, I would have too.

Yes. They, (We) are paid. Its an odd arrangement.

Our council camp staff is a venturing crew chartered to the council.

Thanks all. My tentative plan is to help support the transition through 2018. By then I believe I'm going to start grad school, and depending on work, school or social committments, my troop volunteer days will probably end in 2019. Might take a small committee role at that point if 'm happy where things are going.

I've fought this battle to the point of exhaustion with my Scouts. They tell us the meetings are boring. Well, lets make them less boring...Nope. I try to help the older scouts brainstorm. Nothing. I toss out suggestions, nothing. I've given them Troop program guides for inspiration. Nothing.

Our Troop has selected a new SM to start May 2018. As an ASM, one of the longest tenured members of the troop, how can I help this new SM transition? What advice do you have for troops transitioning SMs.

We avoid curremt events and politics in our SM minutes.

That's my breaking point. I'll happily integrate girls into Boy Scouts. I will not lead a family camping program.