Eagle1993

I’ve seen and heard of units like this before. I rarely would recommend lone scouting.... but that would be better than this. Document and report this Troop and get out. The lessons he is learning are not good ones. Ideally, find another Troop or even leave scouting completely if needed. “Summer Camp is supposed to be at least a little fun.” Scouting should be a great time and memory for youth. Yes, at times it is tough and during that time you many not think of it as fun, but most of it is and even the tough times end up being great lessons. I see no benefit of your son continuing with this Troop based on what you summarized.

I don’t agree with them extending G2SS to interactions with scouts outside of scouting unless that is your only relationship with that youth. Even then, I would have to probably used different language. Something like, “G2SS is a great way to ensure youth safety and we recommend following it with scouts outside of scouting events. If you have an activity with scouts that you would like to violate G2SS, don’t be cute and call it non-scouting... as we will find out and hunt you down. If you happen to be family friends with the scout (or have other non scout non weird relationship with them) G2SS is only a recommendation but feel free to have a beer while showing them how to shoot a bottle with a 22 over a lake at dusk.” Ok, I’m not a lawyer but something along those lines....

I understand what they are getting at. Some pedophile adult leader says the 1 on 1 contact with a scout youth was at a non scouting event so it doesn’t count as a YPT violation. The problem I have is that when they expand G2SS so much and add so many rules it makes it very difficult to run a unit (especially smaller ones). You will have two scenarios. One... leaders start ignoring G2SS completely as it has become the equivalent of the 4 pages of warnings in your lawnmower engine manual. They may refer to a few sections for guidance but don’t take the book to heart. Two...leaders follow it to the letter of the law. Trips and meetings are cancelled due to insufficient leadership. Leaders drop out as they feel their life outside of scouting is now being monitored. Etc. Neither makes scouting safer but it does help give Nationals an out in any possible mishap that could occur.

And people wonder how Boy Scout camps could be so expensive to maintain...

That program is “Scouts BSA”. I think there were very clear that the program for girls would be identical to Boys... they said that multiple times. It would just be a parallel program. What they also said (or at least implied) was that the existing program wouldn’t be impacted. By changing the name of the existing Boy Scout program to Scouts , one could argue that is where they went astray.

You typically don’t have to buy the uniform and book every year.... so you may want to say 1/3 of that cost for an annual estimate. I’m not sure what you do for fundraisers but many families end up kicking in on those. There is also FOS that many but clearly not all families pay, but you could add in that cost. To put it in perspective, my local YMCA overnight camp (1 week) is $770 ... if you can’t afford the full fee of $875 (my kids don’t go).

Our Pack and Troop CO does not have a building. Our Pack stores it’s equipment at various leaders’ homes and we meet at an the elementary school where our scouts are primarily recruited from. We also meet at another public building for den meetings. Unfortunately the costs add up (~$3 k per year just for meeting space). Our Troop stores most of its equipment in a Trailer located at the Quartermasters home. I believe they then meet at the public school as well.

The switch from pins to urns at 100 years of service ... https://www.inthelighturns.com/life-s-trail-boy-scout-light-oak-urn.html

Just sent you private message with my Pack email address. I think our scouts would love to correspond with scouts from the UK.

ACM is already a DL. I’m CC and am unwilling to add more time as a den leader... I acted as a den leader already for my daughters den this spring and between that and CC it sarted to impact by job. CM barely has enough time to be CM and he won’t have bandwidth.

It actually goes both ways. In my case I have a small girl Tiger den (they were Lions in spring) with a former ASM, OA, Eagle Scout as the Den Leader. At the same time I have very poor leadership of my boy Tiger den (13 boys). That den is on the verge of collapse as no parent wants to be a leader. My one option to save the boy den is to create common meetings, have the Eagle dad run the show and have two ADLs (one female) help provide YPT coverage and assistance. Other option is let the boy den collapse (parents have told me they simply don’t have the time or desire to be DL and would pull their sons out if required). Adding girls pulled in a great leader that prior to this year we would have seen the den fall apparently under inferior leadership. We haven’t decided to go this direction yet. If we do I expect we would provide a great experience for 13+ boys. If we don’t we will give a mediocre experience to 5 boys. The girls will have a great experience either way.

My thought as well. I believe unit contacts by Commissioners goes into the District JTE.

Follow up.. https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Parents-Angered-By-Urban-Outfitters-Selling-Boy-Scout-Shirts-483675541.html

I may be wrong but I don’t think BSA specifies any specific answer. I think it makes sense for the question to change with the addition of girls, but otherwise no change is need. If I were the MBC I would just look for a thoughtful answer and discussion. If a scout believes a mother should cook, clean and take care of the kids and the father should work outside the home and do home repair.... no problem. If a scout believes both parents should coordinate and decide how to divide activities and the father could be stay at home and mother worn fine. If both work fine. If the focus on the answer/discussion is that the roles are about guiding kids fine. My main thought is that the key is the scout starts reflecting about their own beliefs, understands that you should find a like minded partner (if the plan is to have a partner) and only then start planning on having a family. Many different family structures work, the best are those with parents that plan appropriately (care, financial, beliefs, etc) before jumping in to have kids.

this is the video... Scouting Magazine has several videos posted on its Facebook page. My understanding is the neckerchief was only for this event. Better pic here

@SSF Simple. Why Solo low $....Marvel >> Star Wars. Debate finished. @The Latin Scot Apparently you are a liberal. Welcome to the club. @CalicoPenn will send you your introductory gift basket.

Yes, excited. Eagle Scout, Ordeal OA (weak lodge), Den Leader and Committee Chair at Pack

Where should we go from here? - Dump all STEM activities and awards... yes some go to these events but most of the time BSA is simply working with s college or science center (in my area) to put those on. I know of 0 Scouts in my unit that join for STEM. - Sell learning for life to some external group. Yes it brings in some $ but it isn’t our core program and it distracts the professionals from supporting our key (Cub Scouts, Scouts, Venturing,Sea Scouts) - Reorganize staff by consolidating councils. Keep more of our $ at the District level. Let Districts have more local authority (no need to review every minor communication to the media with council, etc.). - Open Summit to the public and private investment. It is a money pit and few scouts will ever see it. Admit the mistake and move on. - Allow units to go coed. They will anyway and if the CO, unit leaders and parents all desire that model I see no reason to continue to block it. - G2SS & YPT ... safety is first but there are many threads here showing examples of how it can be overly burdensome. Probably not a major issue but something -Get some good young faces to represent the BSA... mentioned before The list goes on. BSA will survive and could thrive depending on what actions take place going forward.

My Pack added two boys because their sisters joined. The girls joined because they were friends with other girls joining. When I talk with parents they mentioned they really like having one organization for all of their kids. My area parents have kids in sports all the time but scouts offers them the one opportunity to do something together as a family (Cub Scouts). It sounds like a commercial for Nationals but I see what they are talking about on the ground. My parent survey showed 0 negative comments about adding girls from a pack of 65 boys. They have complaints... but not about girls or most of the stuff brought up in these forums. The complaints are about individual leaders and tactical issues... not about the downfall of society. I expect my pack will continue to grow. We were 26 a few years ago. We are at 75 (after cross over and before recruiting). Now time to beg for FOS donations... 😀

Scout Life... BSA has the Trademark as of April this year.

Scout Life??? BSA pulled the Trademark earlier this year.

Personal FB page of some people present at the meeting.

Ellie was just officially announced at the meeting per pictures and posts in FB. Waiting to see an official release. This is the first female National Commissioner is BSA history.

Interview regarding OA membership change.