Girls and Drivers Licences

[featherswillfly]

This is just a question along the same lines as being a 1st Class Scout in the first year. It's been my experience as a scout mom, leader, and Committee Chair, that it's a pretty good idea to have your scout as far advanced as you can get them (Star-Life) before girls and the licence comes into play. Once these two things enter a boys life and mind the rest is set aside, or is at the very least slowed down to a crawl. Next thing you know the boy is coming up on his 18th birthday. This is not true for all boys but it does happen. Does anyone have any thoughts about this? And has this happened to anyone else?

[Bob White]

if you believe you will lose scouts when they discover the two fumes (perfume and gasoline), then you will. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy. You will begin to treat them like they are leaving , you will plan as if they are leaving, and they will leave because you expect it of them.

 

If you expect them to stay until 18, treat them like you expect them around till they are 18 and give them a program that excites a young adult, then thay will stay until they age-out.

 

This has always been my experience and the experience of leaders I talk with who have older scouts.

 

Bob

[evmori]

feathers,

This is an age old problem. Girls & Gas have a strong pull on young men. Once this happens, it's tough to keep em. Since these guys are older, they need to be treated that way. This is one way to keep them.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

[eagle90]

May I add High School sports to the list of girls and cars? In my SM conferences, I always emphasize that scouts should get as much acomplished as they can before High School to minimize the conflicts of time and interests. We will never keep them all, but a good solid program with a High Adventure emphasis for High Schoolers will help retain them for a long time.

[Weekender]

I'm a firm believer in the program being able to hold boys until they are 18. I know not all of them will stay but I would caution against moving them too quickly when they are young to avaid losing them before they make eagle. I've heard one person go so far as to say that he wanted to get the boys to eagle by 15 because they will leave by 16 (what a sad statement). As BOB White said this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you don't plan on having a program for 16 and 17 year olds then you won't have a need for it because they WILL leave. We adults (leaders and parents alike) have to instill in the boys a desire to complete there eagle and remain in scouting because it is an important program.

[jmcquillan]

With regard to High School sports, as the SM, I had a policy whereby Scouts would not be required to make the choice between Scouts and sports. When Scouts in High School came to their sports season, they all knew, for I told them, that they were free to take the time and give 100% to their sport. I was, and still am, a believer in giving of yourself 100% in a few things, rather than trying to accomplish many, and only being able to give 75% or less to each. They were required to simply advise me by written note or letter, in advance, that they would be absent from troop activities between the dates that the sport season started and ended. They understood that their advancement and time in office would stop the moment they left, and start again the moment they returned. No credit would be given while they were not an active participating member of the troop.

 

Parents and Scouts really liked the idea. No major decision was required. They could have both Scouts and sports, with the understanding that something had to give, and that something was their advancement and credit for time in office. Usually, because the boys knew the rules, they knew enough not to try to obtain an position of responsibility in the troop when they knew it would intefere with their sports. This meant that no office would be left mid-way through the term. It also meant that other qualified Scouts had more of an opportunity to get the time in position for rank advancement.

 

As I recall, we never lost a Scout to sports. Quite frankly, the only Scouts we lost before the age of 18, were those whose families moved out of town. It was the best of both worlds for the Scouts. The leadership skills they learned in both venues were valuable to both groups. The teamwork they learned more about in sports was valuable to them in Scouting, and made quite a difference when they, as older Scouts, were responsible for instilling their younger troop members with the pride and enthusiasm for Scouting.

[eagle90]

JM - Good points! Right now my SPL is in baseball, ane while I know he cannot be at our weekend campouts in spring, he still attends troop meetings, sometimes in the "wrong" uniform if he is coming directly from practice! By the way he is 17 and an Eagle.

[slontwovvy]

As my old Scouting mentor used to say, "it's always the three W's--work, wheels, and women."

[featherswillfly]

I may have asked the questions wrong. I'm not worried about losing a boy in scouting. What I meant was when girls, licences, sports, academics, and jobs all come into a young mans life, which usually is around the magical age of 16, it's a fair statement to say the young man should be as far advanced as possible. By being aleast to a life rank by his 16th birthday or a junior in high school, the young man will still have 2 years to work on his Eagle.

My point was to get the boys to have their time consuming merit badges done before they get to the age where outside activies become a little more attractive to them than scouts.

Sorry if I wasn't clear enough.

We do expect boys to stay to their 18th birthday and beyond. Also we have never expected boys and families to choose between scouts and anything else. We too have boys showing up after games and practices in their uniforms. That has never been a problem.

The boys struggle with not having enough time for everything. That is why we tell parents try to have your sons to the highest rank you can before girls, cars, sports, school, and jobs.

[eagle90]

Featherwillfy -- AMEN!! Well said.

[KoreaScouter]

I believe in encouraging a Scout to earn his Eagle, if that's his goal, well before his 18th birthday. Not so much because I'm afraid I'll lose him to the 3-Ws, but because I want him in the troop for a long time with the Eagle badge on his uniform, serving as an inspiration and a role model for the younger Scouts -- giving something back. And, I want him to enjoy and bask in the respect and admiration of those around him for what he accomplished, for as long as possible.

 

We just had a Scout who completed his Eagle requirements right before his 18th birthday, with the COH several months afterward. Congratulations to him and a "good on 'ya" and all that, but I can't help thinking how much more "program leverage" we would have gotten if he had been sporting that Eagle badge on his uniform while he was a Scout, coming to meetings, going on campouts, etc.

 

I know there's also the "drift-away" after Eagle, and you know, we may be largely responsible for it. How many Scouts, when you ask them what their goal is in Scouting, say it's to earn their Eagle? Once they have it, they've met their goal, right? Guess it's time to go do something else. That's the major reason I left martial arts after earning my black belt. The black belt was my goal, I reached it, and no number of degrees of black belt would have kept me aruond. Could it be the same for Eagle? Perhaps we should portray this not as a destination (Eagle COH), but a journey with Eagle just one of the waypoints...

[Mike Long]

Korea hit the nail on the head.

 

Perhaps we should portray this not as a destination (Eagle COH), but a journey with Eagle just one of the waypoints...

 

That is exactly what everyone should be doing.

[k9gold-scout]

In our Venture Crew recruitment, we were able to recharge at least 3 scouts who had droped out of theit troop. They like the co-ed activities and they have been sent back to their troop as teachers to earn credit for Venture Awards and now they will also earn their Eagle Scout along the way (to master a Venture Skill usually takes 2-3x more work than a meritbadge).