Why did you quit?

[Blaze66]

I always see something else I should have commented on when I go back and read all the other posts the second time.

 

My daughter who is now 16 was in Girl Scouts. She made it through Juniors and had a really great time but after Juniors she got bored. Her Girl Scout Troop only went camping maybe two times a year once to a summer camp and the other was a work weekend where they would stay outside at their Scout Hut. The rest of the time they spent, in her words "cooking, sewing and making crafts" which was not what she wanted to do. I grew up camping so when my kids came along I didn't want them left out of the experiences I had as a youth so I started them camping really early. Six months for my daughter and like 12 or 18 months for my son. (only reason he didnt start as early as she did, is because he stayed sick alot his first year.) So anyway, when my daughter got out of Juniors she had enough of Girl Scouts. We didn't and still don't have a Venture Crew really close to where we live... closest one is like 30 minutes drive from the house and it met on the same night as the Troop/Pack meetings so we couldn't get her there. So to satisfy her appetite for camping I take her with me on some of the backpacking trips with the Troop just so she can get out, but it causes some problems with the boys in the troop cause she can go faster, farther and harder than most of them! Other than that she gets along great with them and we have had no serious problems except a few crushed egos..

 

When she was in Girl Scouts there were about 15 in her group until they got to Juniors. Now I think there is only one or two left from her group still in Girl Scouts. Most of them got out either for the same reasons my daughter did, or because they got interested in other activities.

 

I always wish that when she got out I had started a Venture Crew for all those girls in her group that dropped out of Girl Scouts, but at the time I couldn't do it. I was very active in the troop, was still doing Cub Scouts and between those and the other activities outside of scouting I was doing, I just didn't have the time. But im sure she isn't the only girl that has ever been unofficially in a Boy Scout Troop, and even though she doesn't attend meetings, she can't earn any rank or become an Eagle, she has been on the journey! And one day when she has children of her own, I hope that because I included her with Boy Scouts she will send them on the journey too!

[NJCubScouter]

I quit my first troop at age 12, as a Second Class scout. As I recall it was mainly due to being bullied and just not having fun, which I am sure were related issues. My father, who was an ASM and CM at the time, remained involved with the troop even after my next-younger-brother decided not to cross over from Webelos. (Actually he, meaning my father, joined Scouting as a 12-year-old in 1938 and has been involved continuously ever since.)

 

We then moved to another town, and my father became an ASM with the local troop, and after a few months he asked me to meet with the SM. I was persuaded to giving Scouting a second chance. I "aged out" as a Life Scout, having basically decided that I was "too busy" with high school activities to do what I needed to make Eagle, and being content to be SPL and then JASM. (This is a decision I now regret, and every now and then I still hear about it from my father, but considering he has been fighting cancer for more than 2 years, I am very happy just to have him around, and he can pick on me all he wants, even about things that happened almost 30 years ago. Plus, he's right, I should have and could have made Eagle.)

 

After turning 18 I did serve as an ASM (my father was SM by that time) until I went away to college and was not really involved in Scouting again until 22 years later, when my son joined Tigers, but only in the role of "adult partner." At the end of my son's Wolf year, his DL quit, and I agreed to take over.

[Shell in WA- USA]

I was a First Class Girl Scout but I was close in quiting. I had been a GS from Brownies through Senior and I was just determined to "get to the end" for First Class before quiting. It was a really difficult time for me to stay in though. And this was two years before they started Exploring Posts witht he girls so I didn't even have that option.

 

I had a leader who just didn't do much. We had our weekly meetings and that was it. I was the only one in my troop who attended summer camps. The leader had a "jealousy" of anyone who did better than her daughter (who BTW, didn't want to be in GS)

 

Once If got my Fist Class, I quit and joined 4-H for two more years.

 

My Father was a life Scout. At the time, he had no interest in siting in a field for bird study, so he let his Eagle rank slip by (this was in 54 when it was still required. But he looks back on it now and really regrets not pushing just a bit more. He helped inspire my brother and myself in "finishing what we started." My brother is an Eagle Scout.

 

 

 

[red feather]

Interesting to me is the undercurrent of this thread. That is a lot of scouts (both GSA and BSA) either quit or stayed in because of an adult involved with the program.

 

As an adult leader we do make a difference, we set an example of what scouting can do for or make of an individual. Interest in a scouts life and progress through scouting can make the difference.

 

In the troop that I work with we have the 'fumes' (gas fumes and perfume) that we always have to contend with. But interest in the scout and the scouting adventure usually makes the difference.

 

The result is "True returns". As an adult leader we cannot give up, maybe pick a different road or target, but never give up on a scout.

 

Those out there that had a bad experience with an adult leader..... my most sincere apologies and that you are on this forum.... good for you. Keep up the good work and thank you.

 

yis