TAHAWK

Why is that?

Substitute bacon sandwiches?

Sign facing adults on rope dividing adult section from youth section at meeting planning the next camporee: "If you feel you just HAVE to make a comment, have a cookie instead."

Even a good video of the course might help with some Scouters.

A bad experience is likely worse than no experience. They have a "model" in their heads, and it not Boy Scouting.

"There is no easy solution. As was spoken in one of the discussions last week, with over 75% (probably close to 85%) of adults joining the BSA without a youth scouting experience, the odds are against building a traditional patrol method program." Add that, among those who Scouted, a minority would have experienced the Patrol Method. It was fading fast around here almost thirty years ago. Many who would have recalled it are dead.

A great approach ! All that is done in my older council is to invite the SMs to a "banquet" the last day where some scraps of what has been taught is presented -as they eat. The assumption seems to be that all SMs use the "official" Patrol Method - despite the contrary information actually in hand and the lack of clarity about what is "official."

No. Adults who don't "get it" is not brand new. But it's worse now where I am than it was in my first life in Scouting in California in the "Golden Age." There, each troop that was judged to be applying the Patrol Method per 1950 Patrol leader's Handbook got its number called to have its flag brought forward to receive a ribbon ("Patrol") at the annual council assembly of troops on Scout Saturday. Everyone noticed the few troops whose number was NOT called. Jump to 1989. I am Scout RT Commissioner, and I discover that 2/3 of the troops represented have adults appoint PLs and 3/4 have adults appoint SPLs. The spokesman at that RT meeting for adult appointment ("The boys always get it wrong. It's just too important to let them decide.") is my older council's most recent Silver Buffalo recipient and its rep to numerous national meetings. Today, I can count the Patrol Method troops on the fingers of my hands. Thankfully, I just joined one of them. It meets twice a month so the patrols can meet four times a month. Today, even after some progress, it is some forty years since BSA said, in any coherent way, what the Patrol Method is. Today, Scouting.org's website says the Patrol Method is " a component of what we call youth-run, or boy-run troop. [punctuation and spelling as in original]." One wonders who "we" might be and why they are allowed to speak for BSA. Could you PM me a copy of the syllabus? Which syllabus?

In the one-day district-level JLT ("temporarily" ended circa 2001 while we waited- and waited - and WAIT for the new syllabus), the discussion leader asked "Who is the leader?" The syllabus answer was "the Patrol Leader." Not a Scout failed to understand that the "leader" was whoever led, titles notwithstanding. Bill understood in pushing elected PLs in The Patrol Method, BSA 1930. (And still waiting after sixteen years for the new syllabus. Except when we use the "old" syllabus as the basis for an "unofficial" course.)

We train Scouts in NYLT. They go back full of excitement, only to be told "That's not how we (the adults have determined) do it here." So how do you find the NSP method that you use working developing Patrol Leaders? Sounds like it must work.

Scouting belongs to the "people"? That's a change in position.

You missed nothing.

That makes him the Washington Post.

It's supposed to be up to the Scouts. Why is this so difficult?

To quote the great philosopher, Rickey Nelson:

I believe that, to the greatest extent possible, Scouts ought to be in a patrol they want to be in. Any other goal ignores the BSA statement that a patrol "is a small group of friends" - whether BSA recalls that now or not.

Requirements complete while a Scout apply to earning the MB even if Blue Card not signed by SM at the time the requirements were completed. This has been discussed before. The SM does not control when a MB is being earned; the Scout does. The "local scoutmaster" is misinformed - at best. "[A] a boy may begin working on a merit badge at any time after he is registered." "For example, nights already camped as a Boy Scout, or coins or stamps already collected, would count toward their respective badges." "A few merit badges have certain restrictions, but otherwise any registered Boy Scout, Varsity Scout, or qualified Venturer or Sea Scout may work on any of them at any time." BSA, Guide to Advancement at pp. 43-44.

"Earning merit badges should be Scout initiated, Scout researched, and Scout learned. It should be hands-on and interactive, and should not be modeled after a typical school classroom setting. Instead, it is meant to be an active program so enticing to young men that they will want to take responsibility for their own full participation." BSA, Guide to Advancement

Glad you have access to better numbers than I could find via Google. But you simply reinforce my point. It is not a simple a "Co-ed and UP!" Other things go on, such as da' Bear Factor. And there are broad social trends. In the U.S., membership in bowling leagues, garden clubs, parent-teacher associations, and fraternal organizations are on a decades-long downward trend. Yes, adults, but if the adults won't join there is no way to take the kids those adults would have supported had they joined. Then there is the youth fascination with apps.

1976 Girls first allowed in Venturing in the UK Membership 627,569 per UK Scouting Assn. 1980 Membership hit all time peak of 641,268. After declines in 1981-1985, membership census figures omitted from official chronology 1991 Girls allowed in all sections 2004 290,000 members of all ages per claim as to growth by 2014 2007 Girl membership mandatory in all sections. Membership 450,457 based on 2017 claim as to growth in ten years. 2009 Bear Grylls becomes Chief Scout (when not hospitalized from results of dangerous stunts) Membership 499,323 by year's end. 2010 Just under 500,000 members claimed 2016 Membership claimed as 550,457.

The vast, vast majority of suits that really got filed - and all the ones were money was paid to satisfy judgments or for settlement - were about sexual abuse of minors by adults. Every suit about membership policy I can find was won by BSA and the Cos and councils involved. You may argue about what lesson BSA should have drawn from winning in court and being flayed by the MSM, but its hard to objectively measure "risk and/or liability" when no suit has been lost and BSA insures and indemnifies the unit, council, and cos against liability in such suits. But the Boogey Man is real to some and they act on their perception of reality.

"But when it comes down to it, I do believe it will happen, and it will be necessary to save the organization. Nothing else seems to adequately address the steadily declining membership numbers." Canada went to "all inclusive" and youth membership accelerated its fall - to about 20% of 1965 levels in absolute numbers - much worse as a % since Canada's population of age-eligible youth has increased by 1/3. Not saying cause and effect, although membership fell 50% in the decade after the gay-inclusion decision, but inclusiveness hardly "saved" Scouting in Canada. * * * "White Stag" as the End of Scouting as We Know It. As many know, the first Wood Badge course was all-Scoutcraft to First Calls level. When the "Leadership Skills" from White Stag were inserted and Scoutcraft reduced, we heard the changes (about forty-five years ago) were "The End of Scouting as We Know It." And we hear the same in the forum, over and over. In turn, when the White Stag Skills were dropped from Wood Badge some fifteen years ago, that too was "The End of Scouting as We Know It." How to sum up the current version of Wood Badge is harder than the first two versions. It is based, in part, on a misunderstanding of Tuckman's ideas (according to Tuckman), so don't blame him for the absurd claim that all groups go through the same four stages in a given order as they evolve over time. The rewriting of the syllabus to avoid paying royalties to Blancard & Assocs by BSA employees who did not understand the material seems to have contributed to many strange statements in the rewritten syllabus. I nominate Summer Camp Merit Badge mills - inherently untrustworthy scamming -, and disappearance of accurate descriptions of the Patrol Method as the two most pernicious failures by BSA in the last generation or two. The first is only just being addressed with any steel and it's a long trip to correct the second given how few recall what has been unsaid in any coherent way since Bill died.

History TOLD us that no team more than ten points behind HAD ever won the Super Bowl. Were Brady and the Pats guilty of incomprehensive optimism?

I must hope you are mistaken, and I do.