David CO

Almost all of the them can. My sixth graders are a whole lot smarter than many people give them credit for. The problem isn't that sixth graders don't know their own minds. The problem is that their adult leaders are in recruitment mode rather than helping mode. Most boys don't join scouting. They do make the decision without any troop experience.

Yet they are.

Boy, he sure has a lot of nerve for someone who is only a fourth generation Texan.

Yes, and it is a big problem for the troop. Every year, we got a number of crossovers who really liked cub scouting, but they just didn't like boy scouting. As a scoutmaster, I wished that the weeb transition process would have made some effort to help the scouts to discern whether or not they would actually like to be boy scouts. I don't consider a transition to be successful when the scout signs up in a troop. I think it is successful when the scout makes a good decision. Scouting is about making good decisions. Sometimes a good decision is to join a troop, but sometimes its not.

Right there is the problem.

Yep, Sadie Hawkins Day is coming up. The women are getting ready.

No, the execs would still be running the show. The units don't show up because they have learned from experience that it just doesn't do any good. It is a waste of time.

Sorry about the -1. It was a mistake. My computer screen bounces around sometimes, and the -1 is too close and directly above the quote button. There is no way for me to remove it. My apologies. If you look back at my post, you will see that I was talking about the Catholic school system. Yes, the public schools pay a lot more than the Catholic schools. We also get paid less in the boonies than in the city. I don't know if you would consider my teaching salary to have been in the poverty level, but I did qualify for food stamps for a few years. I never made more than $40,000. I couldn't have made ends meet without a second income in the family. I identify very closely with all the blue collar families in scouting who simply can't afford all the cost increases.

Even all-boy units in the same town aren't equal. They don't have equal programs, facilities, or resources. Every troop is different. So far, we haven't had complaints that one unit may have more of something than another. Units are allowed to compete with each other. I think this may change if the girls' unit ends up getting fewer donations and sales than the boys. Are we going to end up with some sort of title 9 program in scouting?

To put that in perspective, the salary for a Catholic middle school teacher in my diocese maxes out under $38,000, and that is with a masters degree and over 20 years experience. A starting teacher gets about $22,000, with an additional $800 per season if he coaches in the evenings. If you compare the execs salaries with those of other non-profit organizations in education and recreation, I think you will find that the SE's and DE's are paid much higher than their counterparts with similar degrees and experience. I didn't say that the committees have much power. I said they had prestige. All the power is firmly in the hands of the execs. I was an IH. I know from experience that the Chartered Organizations' votes on the council don't amount to a hill of beans. The units have no power at council. In BSA, all the power is controlled by the execs.

No, that technique doesn't meet the requirements. It is not an abrupt entry. The purpose of the training is to prepare the scout to be able to save his life in a situation where he finds himself in an unplanned and abrupt entry into the water. A scissor kick entry is a very useful thing if you are a skilled swimmer and you need to do a rescue. It is not very useful technique for a novice swimmer who suddenly and unexpectedly falls in the water. Nor is it useful to a novice swimmer, swimming on the surface, who is pulled under water. If a boy would resent adults for making him learn to swim, then he will probably already resent us for making him go to school, go to the doctor, go to the dentist, and a wide variety of other unforgivable offenses. This will be just one more thing for him to add to the list.

All the heavy lifting is done by the scouts and unit scouters. It is true that district and council leaders don't get there by accident. They get there by donating large sums of money to help pay for the execs bloated salaries. In return, the execs give council leaders prestigious looking positions on the committees. One hand washes the other. Scouts will never have much say at the district, council, or national level. They don't have the big bucks to buy a committee post.

I agree that advancement is not the aim or goal of the program. I disagree with everything else. I think every child should learn how to swim well enough to save their lives in an emergency situation. If necessary, they should be ordered to learn it. A reluctant swimmer should be given no choice in this matter. Of course, a scout leader can't force a scout to do anything. This is the parents' responsibility. As a scout leader and swimming instructor, I would sit down with the parents and advise them to order their son to do it. If the scout leaders are too squeamish to teach a reluctant swimmer to swim, I would suggest that the parents enroll their son in a swimming class somewhere else. A good swimming instructor will get the job done.

I have a hard enough time remembering what it is like to be 50, much less 15.

I am a Science teacher. I know Science. Mr. Greene is not making an argument based on evidence or Science. The problem with his method of collecting "evidence" is that he only talked to the people who remained in the scouting program after going co-ed. He didn't talk to those who left. It is like judging the effectiveness of a new medicine by looking only at those who survive the treatment.

Of course that is what Mr. Greene is suggesting. This is the same argument that has been used to promote socialized medicine, drug legalization, abortion, gay rights, and a whole slew of liberal social agendas. It is the argument of the left. I am sure that Mr. Greene did not use this polarizing argument without understanding that it would raise red flags with just about any conservative who reads it.

We have all heard this internationalist, one world government argument before. It is a staple of the left. The founders of scouting could have set up one monolithic international organization with no borders and no national scouting associations. They wisely chose not to go that way. I think we should resist the argument that all national scout associations need to do things the same way.

I know what the rules say. I also have been around long enough to know that this is not how it actually works. The rules and bylaws are a sham. Chicago learned this a while back. When the units rejected the execs hand picked slate, national threatened to pull their council charter. Now, nobody rejects national's hand picked slates. The council boards are chosen by the execs at national. I just don't know how they go about it.

There are no free market forces involved at BSA. It is a rigged system. I have no idea who these board members are or how they are selected. All I know is that they seem to rubber stamp anything the execs put in front of them. BSA doesn't hire from outside. You know that.

If they can make more money or have more power by going elsewhere, then let them do it. That is not a good reason to overpay them or give them too much power in BSA.

Two million dollars spent to teach scouts how to be thrifty?

You have already helped. You are the 5th volunteer on the charter application. That may be what this unit needed most (or most urgently).

Don't worry. Be happy. Offer your service cheerfully, do what you are asked to do, have fun, and don't fret about all the rest of it. It is not your responsibility to run the unit, and it will not be your fault if it fails. Even if the unit should fail, people will notice your good work and cheerful service. You will be asked to serve again.

No, that wouldn't be fair to the Chartered Organization.

Ever since the Democratic Convention where a young girl took the podium to mock Dick Chaney (and suggest that he needed a time out), it has been understood by politicians, particularly those on the right, that some people, particularly those on the left, will try to use children to score cheap shots. So, it is not all that unusual for a politician to specify "no cameras" during the "Q and A" as a condition for accepting an appearance involving children. BSA isn't supposed to allow people to use scouts, in uniform, for partisan political activity. I do see some value in having office holders participate in a private, off-the-record conversation with scouts as an activity to promote civic awareness and good citizenship, but these events should never be used to create a politically divisive "gotcha" moment. Yes, there really is a very good reason for politicians to limit what can be photographed at these events. There would be a good reason for BSA to limit it as well.