Scouts is Uncool

[Kudu]

Add "No Electronics" policies to the uncool.

 

Show me a Troop that forbids electronics, and I'll show you a car-camping unit where the adults don't get enough exercise.

 

[berliner]

I have made/been involved with homepage and 2 Facebook pages for Scouts - one public and one a private group.

Public one is great for recruting, advertising fundraisers, thanking your sponosor/charter etc.

The private group is great for the kids to share camp pictures etc.

 

Add passworded Websites to my list of why Scouts is uncool. In sports, a boy's first AND last name are published in both the analog newspaper and the online edition to announce his accomplishments.

 

In Scouts we hide in secret vaults what is cool about Scouts (the one thing that has proven to recruit Boy Scouts to our Troop), so as to protect young men against imaginary monsters lurking in the parking lot.

 

 

I agree, but what am I/we going to do? Best to offer a closed and an open site than none at all.

We are not allowed to post pictures of scouts faces publicly - so you need good pics to advertise your activities without showing faces. Difficult but doable. PITA.

Eventhough when the parents sign the kid up they actually have this part about pictures now that is signed, but oh well ...

Now some of those monsters are not imaginary sadly. But its a bit overdone.

Like telling overseas BSA not to wear uniforms off base because that could make you a target for terrorists o_O no kidding.

Troops here get terror warnings from the embassy. Uncool.

 

But we try to work around every obstacle and find our way - right? ;-)

[berliner]

Add "No Electronics" policies to the uncool.

 

Show me a Troop that forbids electronics, and I'll show you a car-camping unit where the adults don't get enough exercise.

I disagree a bit: I was self employed, spending my days in front of a computer screen when I went back to BSA and became an ASM to get away from electronics.

I agree we need to incoropate modern technoligies a bit more as it is not the 80s or 90s anymore (but we are with GPS/geocaching and all) but

I think they still should not take MP3s to camp. We only got to take our gameboys and walkmen if we spent 12 hours on the bus going to camp, and for the ride only.

At Merit Badge University we had the SPL/PLs take their cell phones as the troop was split and under supervision of other BSA adults, so that was very good to organize (some of the merit badge classes where over early so we knew we had to go pick them up).

 

And yes sadly a lot of us SM/ASMs are not a good role model looking at the XL shirts and all ;-)

Due to the military most of the TAC troops are a bit different.

Civilian troop = high diabetes level in leadership o_O

[Kudu]

Add "No Electronics" policies to the uncool.

 

Show me a Troop that forbids electronics, and I'll show you a car-camping unit where the adults don't get enough exercise.

Most of the active adults I know listen to MP3s when they backpack, jog, walk, and work out. Why should Boy Scouts wait until they quit?

 

The BSA program is designed to move a Cub Scout survivor to Eagle without ever walking into the woods with a pack on his back. So, yes, "No Electronics" policies serve the important function of allowing adult Wood Badge/ItOLS graduates the illusion that packing Patrols into small, crowded car camps is Scouting.

 

But really, if to reach Eagle the BSA required even a single night of what Baden-Powell called "camping," how would you even know that a Patrol at 300 feet, or a remote Boy Scout on a required back-woods Journey, had electronics?

 

I encourage our Scouts to bring phones and MP3 players on backpack trips but, as you can see from our videos, most of them save their batteries for bed:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/At300Feet

[berliner]

Add "No Electronics" policies to the uncool.

 

Show me a Troop that forbids electronics, and I'll show you a car-camping unit where the adults don't get enough exercise.

Cant watch youtube at the moment ;-) Will check that out later.

 

Yes adults and kids can both enjoy MP3 players when jogging on their own or what not, and if it takes 10-12 hours to get to camp by train or bus or whatever we let them play video games even. Nowadays camera, music, game and phone come in one piece anyway.

If I dont see it outside the tent I wont bother.

But I still think that the idea is for them to be together as a patrol, talk to their buddies and on a hike maybe

hear the birds and waterfall and what not, and not the Top 40 Countdown.

On some hikes MP3s would be a simple safety hazard.

Time and place for everthing ;-)

[Kudu]

Add "No Electronics" policies to the uncool.

 

Show me a Troop that forbids electronics, and I'll show you a car-camping unit where the adults don't get enough exercise.

"The mission of the BSA is to advance Cub Scout survivors to Eagle without ever walking into the woods with a pack on their backs, and to call that 'making ethical choices'."

 

What makes Scouts uncool is that we have replaced physical distance (objective standards) with the subjective judgment of adults.

 

We replaced Journeys (as each rank's test of Scoutcraft) with subjective adult sign-offs, Scoutmaster Conferences, and Boards of Review. We replaced "Real" Patrols (a Patrol Leader's ability to physically lead his Patrol into the backwoods), with a subjective "understanding" of EDGE theory.

 

So for how most adults experience Scouting (Patrols squeezed together into small car-camp sites), the subjective need of adult helicopters to see Scouts "together as a patrol, talk to their buddies and on a hike maybe hear the birds and waterfall and what not, and not the Top 40 Countdown" is overwhelming.

 

Some Troops use "Electronics Chit" cards.

 

Real Boy Scouts (those who enjoy walking into the woods with packs on their backs) use electronics responsibly, as the videos show:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/At300Feet

 

As for "On some hikes MP3s would be a simple safety hazard," do the Scouts in our videos appear to be in danger?

 

Everyone knows that fake "safety" (along with "Scout Sprit") is the sacred wild card of our adult-run Cub Scout program for teenagers.