DuctTape

Personally, I think the one of the biggest problems is the BSA is trying to be to businesslike. The issues cited which require so much bookkeeping, paperwork, forms up the wazoo, MBA-style training and the large overhead of people at council/national are directly related to each other. Us teachers, blue collar workers, etc... can easily handle what is necessary to help the boys run a troop. The problem is too much stuff is being sent down which becomes an obstacle in helping the boys seek adventure. The problem is BSA shouldn't be a business, nor run with a business model. Some basic accounting, yes. But beyond that, get them out of the conference rooms, take away the "workbooks", and let the boys out and have adventures in the woods, water and fields using the Scouting model. edit: Final comment. A 3.6M budget isn't really that much and doesn't require paying someone a quarter million $ or more to manage it. School superintendents get paid less than $200K and they have an operating budget in near $100 million. I have run spreadsheets for small organizations tracking $250k in my spare time without compensation.

I had typed up a longer response to the OP yesterday, but the system had an error and it didn't post. That said, I agree with much of what boomer said. In my original post, I wrote a bit about the scout skills like knots. The purpose of all of them is, as boomer wrote, in their application. Thus the place to teach and practice them is not in the scout meetings but first in the outdoors. Lastly, while I agree with boomers sentiment about the magazine, I am not a fan of Backpacker. Like BL, it has devolved from what was once a great mag. It now is just a giant ad for expensive gear.

The Chartering Org can also be a "Group of Citizens", which can be the Committee.

Or try this: even with self inflators, one often needs to add some air, or inflate them quicker.

One of the reasons the scout camps are so expensive is because they keep increasing infrastructure which is expensive to begin with and then the maintenance costs. Too many are trying to be mini-resorts which happen to do some scout stuff. Focus should be on the woods and camping.

I like it. At the very least it would force scouts into the out-of-doors and be a real test of the skills they picked up along their journey. I would include in the report a reflection on their Scouting journey up to this point; what they learned, how it was used and how it will be used in their 5 -year plan. Another thought... why for only Eagle? Why not have the scout build up to this from 1st class. A one-nighter for FC, 2-nighter for Star, etc...

And some troops ban them.

The ban on sheath knives or other decisions which potentially take away the outdoor adventure are not liberal nor conservative in nature. Both sides of the spectrum have been complicit in these decisions and scouters on both sides lament them as well.

While I agree with your general sentiment, I myself carry and use a small birch handle mora sheath knife. However, I disagree with your analysis regarding the safety of using a hatchet to split wood to kindling size. Done properly, the hatchet blade is never out of contact with the wood. There are a few methods which can be employed to accomplish this. The most obvious is to use the hachet in the same way some use their knife to "baton". There are other methods as well. But regardless of which method is used, by maintaining contact between the blade and wood, safety is not compromised any more than with a sheath knife. It is also useful to know how to split wood without either a knife or axe/hatchet using a small saw. Even more useful is learning how to find and collect wood which needs little/no prep to begin with so no tools are necessary. The latter of all these skills is often the most difficult to attain albeit the most useful IMO.

In NYS, there is much more land that is not a "Park" in which one can camp without a permit or payment. State Forests abound and then there is the Catskills and Adirondacks. Vermont also has plenty of state land (and national) open for primitive camping for free without permit. I am sure a quick search will find the same for NH. Doubtful for MA tho.

Baloney. 50 years ago (1964), few if any Boy Scouts had ever heard of a backpack waist belt, which changed Delway's back country travel as radically as the invention of the stirrup changed the history of warfare. If anything, the worldwide test of a First Class Scout, a 14 mile overnight backpack Journey with a heavy pack hanging directly off our shoulders, was harder 50 years ago. But the whole point of backpacking is that a Boy Scout's direct experience of nature can be the same now as it was 50 years ago. Note that the "simple reality" apology for Parlor Scouting is a description of front country Patrol camping, not Delway's back country backpacking. As such: 50 years ago we did not take rifles backpacking. Those of us with Svea 123 stoves did not bother with campfires. Or hatchets. Or gathering firewood. No law then or now prohibits unsupervised teenagers from backpacking in national forests (or most state wilderness areas). Such venues are free, not "more expensive." State-of-the-art backpacks from the 70s & 80s can be purchased now for $5. We never stayed in one place for a week in the back country, and no adult ever checked up on us. We did not use public transportation for backpacking: When I got my driver's license we drove 100 miles to the Adirondacks on school vacations (oh, DuctTape, I lost your Email). I know "21st century" Scouts who drive 200 miles after I get them addicted to backpacking. So why can't "21st century trained" Boy Scout leaders tell the difference between a backpacking trip and a Patrol outing? 48 years ago the father of modern Wood Badge, John Larson, won the battle to replace outdoor leadership with indoor leadership: http://www.whitestag.org/history/history.html#1965 So now Wood Badge is designed for Den Mothers, the "Patrol Method" presentation of Scoutmaster training replaces Patrol Leaders with adult-led EDGE theory (nobody noticed), and we pay our Chief Scout Executive a million dollars a year to bash camping. But Delway the good news: If you stick to your guns (and also give your most mature Scouts some freedom on two-deep back country trips), your Troop's backpack program can become popular beyond your wildest dreams. Check out our January backpack "Cumberland Island National Seashore: Day One" (and Day Two) https://plus.google.com/100437668559826261011/posts Kudu, Resending original so you have it. dT

My father was too poor to buy a uniform as were the rest in his patrol/troop. All $ saved and earned went to other gear. Their "uniform" was a handmade arm band with a drawn on patrol emblem.

My first thought was he is pushing the patrol to plan a front country trip because he doesn't like to backpack. So now he want the patrol to act as though it was a backpacking trip. sounds like he needs to learn more about being a member of a patrol and not push his own way. perhaps another patrol which doesn't like to backpack would be more to his liking.

And I agree with you. I wonder if in the troops where this issue is the greatest, the fundraisers are designed, implemented and run by adults or are they part of the boy-led program? Perhaps this is a symptom of something greater. I know in my troop, the fundraisers are all adult -run. This is something I have been slowly working on. Difficult to change when "this is how we have always done it". Since many/most of the boys aren't invested in this part of the program due to them not having any real part of the process, the issue comes up often for me. I am slowly training the adults to learn what boy-led means.

The idea that scouts will participate or be motivated solely by personal gain is the antithesis of Scouting. If they aren't doing their best, as service to others with pure motives absent of personal gain then they aren't being true scouts, and we are failing them by not providing the opportunity for a program to instill that virtue.

Neither. "A boy may wear all the scout uniforms made, all the scout badges ever manufactured, know all the woodcraft, campercraft, scoutcraft and other activities of boy scouts, and yet never be a real boy scout. To be a real boy scout means the doing of a good turn every day with the proper motive and if this be done, the boy has the right to be classsed with the great scouts that have been of such great service to their country." -J. Alexander as written in the 1911 Handbook for Boys

I never understood what was wrong with the aim, methods, etc... of scouting as written by J. Alexander in the 1911 Handbook. "The aim of the Boy Scouts is to supplement the various existing educational agencies and to promote the ability in boys to do things for themselves and others." "The method is summed up in the term Scoutcraft, and is a combination of observation, deduction and handiness, or the ability to do things." "This is accomplished in games and team play, and is pleasure, not work, for the boy." "All that is needed is the out-of-doors, a group of boys, and a competent leader."

Except not, since interactions on FB are public, except for private/instant messages which are no different than a phone call. I wasnt clear. By not being friends and only posting interactions on the troop page in public view, no one on one digital contact occurs.

Our troop has a FB page. Since FB requires account holders and anyone using FB be 13+ years old, those under 13 would be lying if they use or have an account. We remind them a scout is trustworthy. For those over 13, I am not "friends" with them. Any interaction on FB can be done via the troop page in full view of everyone. I suppose that is the online version of no one on one contact.

Don't forget Trustworthy. Even having a FB account is evidence of lying as one must be 13, and declare to be such in order to create and use an account.

Ben Franklin also predicted it. Jefferson was quite clear about the dangers of a country which moved beyond an agrarian system. I don't think the founders would be appalled. In fact I don't think they would be very surprised. Throughout history, no republic nor democracy had lasted, the founders as educated men would have been well aware of history and known the system would have devolved.

And from the beginning there have been gay leaders (role models). The issue is whether others happen to know the adult is gay. If an adult was a good role model when no one knew he/she was gay, how/why do they cease to be a good role model when others find out that person is gay? To me, the answer to that question is the most telling.

Another solution to ask the scouts is if they want to attend. In my troop, during their annual planning they assumed they had to do _____ because that is what has always been done, None of them really cared for it, but a few of the adults that have been around really like it and these scouters try to sell the district and council camporees to the scouts. These adults wonder why all but the most involved scouts (read: those who never miss anything) don't go. The scouts were surprised when they realized they didn't have to put ____ camporee on the calendar. Often boys do only what they know and/or think they are allowed/expected to do. Sometimes reminding the boy leaders that THEY get to decide what the trip will be. Some might not realize they can contact other troops and do joint trips, heck even a klondike derby outside of the council/district. If the boys know they have options and that the adults support their decisions. I use the 3 questions 1. Is it safe? 2. Is it Scouting 3. Is it fun? as the deciding metric with my boy leaders.

Basketry & Snorkling yeah, I know snorkling isnt a MB.

I have noticed in the last couple decades a directional shift in Eagle projects to be more structure building requiring significant material cost and expertise well beyond that of a scout. In the past, projects were more labor intensive requiring the candidate to organize other scouts (and some adults) to accomplish a significant task, any cost was usually minor and often the benefiting organization would pony up that small amount. In all of your estimations, what percentage of projects require significant fundraising? Have you noticed a difference from years past?