"Trail to Eagle Camp"

[BadenP]

As far as the race card is concerned why is it that in the BSA we still have all black troops or all hispanic troops in what is supposed to be a totally intergrated society?

 

Why does the BSA still have the stigma of being an organization only for WHITE middle and upper middle class boys?

 

eagle 92 don't kid yourself the CSE truly does think hispanics should have their own program since "they want to do all activities as a family." Even though as others have pointed out those kids love to camp just like any other, and in the west and southwest many troops are fully integrated with hispanic youth. So IMHO this shoots down the CSE's argument once and for all.

 

My first experience as an ASM was with a dirt poor inner city troop in Los Angeles, which was 40% black, 40% hispanic, and 20% white and asian. These were some of the toughest boys you would ever want to meet, and in the beginning there were several serious fights at troop meetings. Then we went on our first campout and the boys had to learn to work as a team in order to eat and make it as a troop in the outdoors, we adults used the BadenPowell philosophy of letting the boys sort things out for themselves and it worked. Well after that weekend the fights stopped, the boys got excited about moving up the ranks and going on more camping trips, even the hardcore ones. The boys knew what was expected of them and they lived up to and exceeded those expectations. That troop is still going strong today with a lot of community support and was truly one of the most satisfying scouting experiences of my life.

[TAHAWK]

Large, bureaucratic organizations routinely make mistakes about what their "customers" want.

 

>The legendary "Improved Scouting Program" and, more recently, all the uniform changes.

>Toyota's new, larger (12" longer), heavier, lower-mileage 2006 RAV-4 just in time for the first round of $3.99 gasoline.

>Ford's Edsel

>"New Coke"

>Add your own

 

The bigger the organization, the harder it apparently becomes to stay in touch with reality. A certain arrogance sets in. The organization develops a direct pipeline to God, so no input from "the field" is required or desired. They have a monopoly on "received wisdom"

 

BSA sets a new standard for out-of-touch with with no public mailing address, email address, or telephone number.

[Eamonn]

We have one of these Eagle Weeks.

Seems that some fellow died and left a lot of money to two Councils, the one I'm in and the big one next door.

I can't remember all the details, but somewhere in the will it said that the money had to be used for something to do or for Eagle Scout rank.

To date I've never met a SE who would turn down free money.

A week was added on at the end of camp.

A couple of staff members were kept on for the extra week.

Scouts were bussed to places like the Post Office or the Court House in order to meet some of the Citizenship MB requirements.

How the money was really spent?

No one seems to really know.

Many of us just stood around and shook our heads in disbelieve.

A good pal of mine was one of the staff members hired for the first year. An older retired fellow.

When I asked why he wasn't going back the next year he said it was sad and more than he could manage seeing Scouts sitting at picnic tables till late at night while they wrote up all the stuff that needed to be wrote.

Talking with some of the boys, they said that camping with Scouts from other Troops was fun and that the adults were OK.

They all each and everyone of them said that they went because their parents had wanted them to.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

Still something about force feeding Scouts advancement just doesn't sit well with me.

Maybe I'm just becoming to old for how this game is being played?

Ea.