commandopro

I don't think that is entirely true. I appears that there is a lot of work time devoted to these forums.

Dave, I've been around the forums for a short time. I'm just curious where you find the time to post so many messages. Perhaps things are a little different in the Central Region (I'm in the Southern), but down here we are under an intense amount of pressure to perform. I don't understand how you can pay as close attention to these forums as it would appear that you do. I don't mean to be cruel, but perhaps you should be spending this time working with your DE's to raise more money, so that the Council wouldn't have to cut your position.

OK, OK, it looks like I was unsuccessful getting my point across. I was hoping to get some good ideas to improve the program we all love. But, apparently we have reached perfection with the program and any problems we may have are squarely the fault of undedicated leaders and a public that doesn't understand us. Here are the facts, I will watch and see what might be suggestions to fix them: 1) 2/3rds of boys drop out of the Cub Scouting program during their first year in the program. Studies show that the most common reason given leaving is disorganized & boring meetings. 2) Cub Scout membership across the country is going to be down four the fourth year in a row. This is in an evironment where most believed that we would thrive, given the national situation and the return to patriotism. 3) New leaders (according to focus group research) find our training program, long, cumbersome and unhelpful to doing their jobs. Many even a year into the program still don't completely understand what it is they are really supposed to be doing. 4) We were once the largest youth service organization in any community we served. Now we hold that title in very few places as Soccer has overtaken this position, even when just looking at elementary age boys. 5) In the midst of declining Cub Scout membership, Council budgets are being streched to their limits. Many Councils are cutting Staffing Levels (less support to these confused and ill-prepared leaders) and programming (less fun things to keep boys in the program. I see it as a crisis, but I will not force that term on you. Just please tell me how you would improve the CUB SCOUT program and how it would affect the aforementioned problems. Arguing over IF there is a problem or not isn't all that productive, but discussing how to build a better mousetrap is.

Did I ever say we should comprimise our values? If something I said lead you to believe that, I'm sorry. I do not believe that. I am not speaking about comprimising our values at all. To me this is what Scouting is: Teaching the values of the Scout Oath and Law in a fun, outdoor setting. Everthing else MAY be comprimised but NOT that essential element. This in mind are the activities that we are using to teach the values of the Scout Oath and Law in a fun, outdoor setting effective? If we believe in the principles of the Scout Oath and Law, don't we believe that we should teach them to as many boys as possible? If our activities are not challenging and entertaining them enough for them to remain engaged in the program, then aren't we failing at our core mission? Art's and crafts have NOTHING to do with the mission of Cub Scouting. They are only tools that we use to achieve our aims and mission. Well, the question is, are we using a hammer to cut down a tree. I think perhaps we need to BEEF UP the program, not water it down. And, in someways we need to make the delivery of the Cub Scouting program idiot proof. These after all are our least experienced Scouting Leaders. Many of you are trying to change this into an argument about Boy Scouting and our core values. That is not what this is. It's a discussion about CUB SCOUTING and our METHODS.

Fotoscout is on target. There are many people saying that we have seen this before and that we have lived through it. In some ways they are right, but in other ways they are burying their heads in the sand. 1) The Boy Scouts has never in it's history been as controversial as it is now. During Vietnam, the uniform was unpopular, but Scouting it's self was not the issue. Nobody wants to inject their children in the center of controversy, no matter what they personally may feel about a particular issue. 2) We have suffered large membership declines in the past, true. However we have also never recovered from them fully. We serve a lesser percentage of youth today than we did in the 60's. Membership declines have been masked to a certain extent through the introduction of new programs (2nd Grade Cub Scouting, Tiger Cubs and most recently Venturing). These programs are fine programs but they hide the underlying issue. 3) Funding is not only drying up from United Ways. Individuals and corporations are less likely to give than before. See the controversy argument in point #1. 4) Competition for the time of boys is stiff. Parents don't neccesarily see a compelling need to keep their boys in Scouting. They see all youth programs as being equal. They just want their boy to have fun and become well socialized. I suppose we can continue to bury our heads, tell ourselves that this too will pass. However, I think the price of doing so is to suffer another organizational setback that may never be overcome for decades if at all. It may be time to strip the Scouting program down to it's essential parts and gear the program towards the youth of Twenty-first Century America.

Dan, I think you have hit the nail on the head in a way. The specifics you are speaking about, we could hash out all day. Many of them refer to Boy Scouting directly. Cub Scouting however is a much different beast. First of all, I think we have a serious quality of program issue in Cub Scouting. It can be attributed to a variety of things, training, not using the Program Helps, etc. Also, our Troops (in general) are almost repulsed in, many cases, by the Cub Scout program. The amount of time and attention that are willing to give to support leaders in their feeder Packs is minimal. We are also facing outside competition from sports and other activities like we have never seen before. This level of competition just hasn't exsisted in the past. So here is the question I guess: How would you improve the overall quality of the Cub Scout Program. Do we just need to do even more training and support? Do we need to structure the program even more? Or perhaps we need to completely rebuild the program from the ground up.

Dave, Sorry to hear you have lost your position. We in the BSA are facing a crisis of epic proportions. It is not widely talked about outside of professional circles, but there is a huge storm cloud on the horizon. Over the past 3 to 4 years the Cub Scouting program has been in a steady decline. Revenue to local councils has been falling, from United Ways, Friends of Scouting and Activities (b/c of falling membership). I'm not sure what the answer is, but professional positions are being cut all over the nation, and budgets are being hashed and rehashed. This much is true, if we do not find away to turn this ship around, we aren't going to have the same Scouting movement 10 years from now that we have now. I would be curious what each of you might think is a resonable solution to this problem. Commando