Ankylus

I always noticed a distinctive vibe from the GS, from the organization, the volunteers, and the parents, that men were not welcome. It's like they think the men are all just perverts or potential molesters or something. That's fine, I don't want to be any place that I am not welcomed and I have enough commitments for my time. But I did miss being that part of my daughter's childhood and I think I had something to offer in the camping aspect of the program. As noted in another reply, none of the mothers wanted to take the girls camping. Well, if they had let the fathers do it, then the girls would have gotten to go camping. And perhaps my daughter's scouting experience would have been longer and richer. And I regret that for her.

One of the primary reasons my daughter's GS troop disbanded is because men weren't welcome and none of the mothers were willing to go on the camping trips. A single data point, but I think it's not much of an outlier.

Count me in the camp (ah, a pun...no pun intended) that considers this "radical". However, I don't consider that to be a criticism in and of itself. Sometimes "radical" is what is needed. I just don't think this is the time or place. At least not yet. For one thing, from a purely practical standpoint, I think there are too many vested interests in the BSA and the GS-USA and too many political ideologues to really let it happen in any effective way. And these people are both inside and outside the respective programs. For another, I think it would be almost impossible to create and maintain a successful program. There are significant difference between the two organizations that are largely, as you note, a function of catering to their consumers. How do you reconcile those varying interests into a single program? You already note that the BSA has a problem because of its efforts to be all things to all people while failing at it. How much more pronounced would those problems be in the merged entity? And how does one design, maintain, and manage the assets of the two organizations? This is most pronounced with camps. From my limited experience through my daughters experience with Girl Scouting, almost all girl scout camps have cabins, many of them climate controlled with beds. (I think there may have been one exception.) All scout camps I have been too expect tent camping and do not have cabins for overnight camping. Again, these kinds of differences are a function of the wants/needs of their constituents. So how does one reconcile this? My guess is one or both of those constituencies will get the short end of the stick. If this is a goal, it could much more easily be implemented in some kind of "Cooperation agreement" between/amongst the organizations. The agreement would permit access to each other's program and assets precisely in the manner you outline above without formally merging the organizations. Each organization would then be able to adopt the other's program in the manner and to the extent that they desire. This would permit greater flexibility in meeting their consumers' wants/needs from the program. One thing I find intriguing about your proposal from an intellectual standpoint is that I think it is about 15-20 years ahead of its time. I think it is only a matter of time before BSA will be forced to go coed. At that point, it will be forced to change its program to accommodate that change in membership. It already sponsors the STEM scouts program. So when it goes coed, it will become something much like the merged entity you propose. The desirability and the wisdom of this change I will leave to another thread. A second interesting point is that I think a "cooperation agreement" as mentioned above would be a beneficial intermediate step and would help ease BSA into these types of changes to its program. I think if you have the patience and the time to wait a bit, you will see BSA evolve into something like your merged entity. I have no idea what effect that will have on GS-USA, though.

We routinely have several married couples on outings in our troop and they all share a tent with their married partner. Nobody has ever had a problem with it, and we sometimes have as many as 60 to 80 on an outing. It never occurred to me that anybody would object. We did one time on a cub scout outing have a divorced couple who wanted to share a tent. I mean, they had once been married, then they divorced, and they were in the process of reconciling. They came to us and asked what the rules on the sleeping arrangements were. I told them that the rule was that unmarried men and women were not permitted to tent together but that the rules did not address divorced couples and other complications. And that I wasn't going to check for compliance with the general rule in middle of the night. But this question seems to be taking a hit now with the whole trans/homosexuality thing. We just are not getting any kind of guidance from national. I truly resent being put in a position where I HAVE to deal with other people's sexuality.

I agree that consistency in understanding and application are difficult here. I know of a troop that calls itself "boy led" while the SM assigned all the leadership positions in the troop, including SPL. I think that is wrong and I do not think that is "boy led". The boys just have no voice in that. But I also think that I do not have all the answers, nor am I always right. The truth is, to make a program as large as and like BSA to work, you are going to have to have some ambiguity in place and trust that the volunteers will do it correctly. Will there be abuses of that trust? Yes, we talk about it all the time on this board. But the alternative is generate reams of rules, regulations, requirements, and other beauracracy on top of what we already have. The amount of and irritation from national about these kinds of things is already a topic on this board, also. Imagine if they had to right everything to eliminate all the ambiguity in the program? Look what it did for MB requirements and how we already complain about that. So, I think it is just something we are going to have to tolerate and understand that not everyone will agree on what that means.

Our council (1) manages our 3 or 4 council camps, (2) maintains our 3 or 4 council camps, (3) provides training resources and opportunities for both adults and youth, (4) provides a useful interface with the national organization for the Eagle Scout application process, (5) helps manage maintain online advancement records, (6) supports the OA chapter with facilities and resources, (6) performs some useful dispute resolution services from time to time, (7) before 4/1, provided us tour permits that national required for our outings, (8) interfaces with other organizations (such as the Red Cross) to provide us with additional opportunities. That's what pops off the top of my head. But my council very well may not be representative in that we are the largest council in the country, and that gives us resources and opportunities that other smaller councils might not have.

Howdy! And welcome, from Texas.

It's not impossible, just very difficult. We very recently had a scout who earned all the avaiable MBs, including the 4 centennial MBs. But it was a very close thing with his 18th bday.

Late to the party, but here's my $.02. From my experience, I suspect the troop is concerned--rightly or wrongly--that the Eagle rank be earned rather than gifted. We are all familiar with the 14 yo Eagle scout, who came into the troop, whizzed his way to Eagle without learning anything, and then left to pursue another entry on his resume for college. Your son's avid pursuit of MBs may have set off the alarm bells with this particular troop that he is going to be, you know, one of those. You have already left the troop. But another tack you could have taken was to pursue the Eagle required MBs in some way approved by the troop and leave the MB fairs for non-Eagle required MBs. After all, there's a whole lot more of those. Not to say that the troop was handling things correctly. But you generally get more bees with honey than you do vinegar.

Requirements vary by faith and denomination. In the United Methodist Church, the award is by nomination only, and you must be nominated by a third party. I have only ever seen the adult award once in the UMC.

Howdy , and welcome from Texas!

Stupid is as stupid does. If they don't want to come to the US, fine. They can stay in Canada. There is plenty to keep them occupied in Canada. Ever been to BAMF? They have wonderful resources for their program in Canada.

Our council has officially done away with them.

Many troops have a "uniform exchange" where scouts donate old uniforms for other scouts to use. You might see if your new troop does.

The protagonist of the movie "Moonrise Kingdom" is a "scout". Not a BSA scout, but clearly a take offf on the BSA. I understand it was based on a novel, and so that novel might be something like what you are looking for. Some of the subject matter in the movie was not appropriate for young teenagers, however, so if the goal is to turn it over to your children or the troop or somebody you ought to vet it first.

Indeed, a necrothread...OP was in 2010. Thanks for the pointer. Embarrassing miss on my part.

I absolutely agree with all of that.

All the links in this thread 404'd for me. Maybe this thread sparked a run on `em!

There's wet, and then there's wet. Much will depend on how hard and continuous the rains are. But here's some suggestions. 1. If you can get a fire going and keep it going (at least more or less), there is no substitute for that. This, of course, is at the mercy of the rain. But periodic, brief showers should be doable, especially if you can keep a stash of dry wood somewhere. 2. Put up a large tarp or fly, or move into a pavilion or some other shelter where people can congregate. These kinds of conditions are much easier to bear if you have someone to share some fellowship with. Also, you can keep your stash of firewood dry. This would also facilitate organizing appropriate activities for the youth. 3. Cubs, you say? Let the boys know they will have bragging rights because they were at the "Great Ordeal of 2017" or whatever. You might even try to find a generic patch of some kind to give them to commemorate it. 4. There is also no substitute for hot food and drink in those conditions. Lots of coffee and tea for the adults, hot chocolate for the boys. Maybe some instant soup for variety. And keep it available continuously throughout the day. For everything but the coffee, I would just have plenty of hot water available for people to use to fix whatever they like.

Sam Houston Area Council actually has the seed of a scouting history museum. You might reach out to them to see if they are interested. Their website is shac.org. Alternatively, national might be interested in them for an archive of some sort.

One thing you might consider. Once a year we have the scout's parents execute a "privacy statement" or something. I forget what we call it. Basically, it provides several options, each representing a different level of disclosure. Some parents are OK with first names, or pics with no name, or full names, or in the newsletter but not the website, or whatever. We provide them the opportunity to tell us exactly what they are comfortable with.

Howdy , and welcome from Texas! My family were scouters in the Nacogdoches area...lots of places to camp up there.

Howdy , and welcome from Texas! Sounds like you will have a lot to contribute. Looking forward to it.

Howdy , and welcome from Texas!

Howdy , and welcome from Texas!