No more Bubble Ball

[blw2]

[Stosh]

nah... there's a risk of eye damage

Do you know if the last guy to use the touch screen computer washed his hands after going to the bathroom?  Huh?  Huh?

 

OMg, we're all gonna go blind and die!

[Sentinel947]

 

 

People join organizations because of like interests and mindsets.   Decisions by National not only impact perspective kids and parents, but those already registered as well.   They'll vote with their feet.

 

Do you know any scouts and scouters that quit over the lack of water balloons and water guns? I'm not defending the decision. ​They are cowardly and fearful rules that rather patronizingly try to eliminate harm that doesn't exist.​

 

​However, out of all the people I talk to about scouting, the stupid water balloon/gun ban has never come up. Our Troop conducts exit interviews from any families that leave the troop, and it's never been cited as a reason for people quitting. Maybe people in my neck of the woods hate water balloons and guns...

 There are a host of reasons why the scouting movement and more specifically the BSA is declining in this country. While a water balloon/gun ban is a sign of the symptoms for our fearful masters in Irving, it is hardly the most pressing concern in my mind. If I rubbed a genie's lamp and was allowed to change one aspect of the BSA permanently across the country, unbanning water balloons wouldn't be in my top 20 of things I'd consider choosing.

 

​TL:DR: The ban is dumb, but there's way bigger fish to fry. I just laugh at the craziness of it and move on.

[desertrat77]

Do you know any scouts and scouters that quit over the lack of water balloons and water guns? I'm not defending the decision. ​They are cowardly and fearful rules that rather patronizingly try to eliminate harm that doesn't exist.​

 

​However, out of all the people I talk to about scouting, the stupid water balloon/gun ban has never come up. Our Troop conducts exit interviews from any families that leave the troop, and it's never been cited as a reason for people quitting. Maybe people in my neck of the woods hate water balloons and guns...

 There are a host of reasons why the scouting movement and more specifically the BSA is declining in this country. While a water balloon/gun ban is a sign of the symptoms for our fearful masters in Irving, it is hardly the most pressing concern in my mind. If I rubbed a genie's lamp and was allowed to change one aspect of the BSA permanently across the country, unbanning water balloons wouldn't be in my top 20 of things I'd consider choosing.

 

​TL:DR: The ban is dumb, but there's way bigger fish to fry. I just laugh at the craziness of it and move on.

While the water gun/etc. ban is a small thing in and of itself, it is a symptom.  If it was the only "aw shucks" committed by Irving, lately, it would be easy to brush it off.

 

But it's not.   It's one of several and they add up, impacting the image of the organization.

 

On national news, the ban was presented as the "goofball/can you believe this stuff" story of the day, to round out a broadcast.   

 

Did anyone turn in their patch and walk out because of the ban?   I doubt it.  But it sure will influence folks.  

 

People already in the BSA will find a convenient point in time to call it quits.   Not because of the ban, but the accumulation of similar decisions.

 

People not in the BSA already have a public perception of the organization.   Nervous Nelly decision making at Irving impacts the type of adult who wants to sign up.

 

So I'm not viewing these bans as isolated incidents.    There is a trend, and it does not bode well for the BSA's image.

 

(Added) PS   I've laughed off alot of wacky stuff by National since I signed up as a cub in the early '70s.   I lived thru the Improved Scout Program of that decade, and served as a scouter throughout the years since (with several breaks in service).    No higher headquarters is perfect, but I've never seen National in a more disconnected-from-reality state as I do now.

Edited April 8, 2016 by desertrat77

[Krampus]

They didn't leave due to the water gun ban. But add on the membership changes and all the silly bans and, yeah, that's why they left.

[perdidochas]

They didn't leave due to the water gun ban. But add on the membership changes and all the silly bans and, yeah, that's why they left.

 

I have had a Cub Scout (parent)who stopped after a campout, when I had to tell them they couldn't use the canoe they brought due to G2SS rules--wasn't a council camp, so Cub Scouts weren't allowed to be in canoes.  I do agree, the silly bans do reduce membership. 

[Stosh]

I have had a Cub Scout (parent)who stopped after a campout, when I had to tell them they couldn't use the canoe they brought due to G2SS rules--wasn't a council camp, so Cub Scouts weren't allowed to be in canoes.  I do agree, the silly bans do reduce membership. 

 

I took my Webelos boys on a weekend canoe trip.  The paddle was about 15 minutes out to an island with no facilities and the boys had a blast.  Well. Every boy/father combo had their own canoe and getting to the campsite ended up being a combination of automobile travel and canoe travel, but all the families showed up just fine. 

[Krampus]

I have had a Cub Scout (parent)who stopped after a campout, when I had to tell them they couldn't use the canoe they brought due to G2SS rules--wasn't a council camp, so Cub Scouts weren't allowed to be in canoes.  I do agree, the silly bans do reduce membership. 

 

Perfect example. Same thing with orienteering courses. Go figure. Helluva lot of fun and yet, we cannot do with anyone in the Cub program. Winter camping is another. No Klondike even for the day.

[meyerc13]

I think it is the cumulative impact, not any one specific decision.  Being in the upper midwest, we have a good chunk of the year when the weather isn't conducive to outdoor activities with Cub Scouts.  When the wind chil is 30 below, it isn't safe to take Scouts outside to have them run around.  Running around the gymn at the school gets old after a while, and once you've gone through the dozens of different versions of tag, simon says, and red light - green light, you tend to run out of things to do to keep it interesting.  Our Pack has done a post-popcorn sale night out at a local arcade the past few years and the kids love it.  The facility has laser tag, and the kids love that, and it would be great if we could incorporate that into our program especially for the Wolf-Webelos boys.  However, it isn't allowed.  Every year parents roll their eyes when I have to explain that to them.  Every year, upon conclusion of our Pack activity, a number of parents on their own time allow their kids to play.  It's silly that we have to dance around the official rules for something like this, but yet that is what we have to do.

 

I'd like to believe that National isn't so crazy that they believe that people are going to be seriously and permanently injured by laser tag and squirt guns.  Based on my completely unscientific research, I don't believe it's possible for the 'lasers' in laser tag to cause any permanent eye damage.  I'm sure that National's logic is actually something like "Oh my!  We can't allow laser tag and water guns, we'll be teaching kids to shoot other kids!!!  They'll become the next school shooter!!!"  I'm sorry, but where is the science behind that logic?  Most of the people who commit these crimes aren't the well adjusted Scouts who get lots of exercise running around and playing.  They're loners, often with some degree of mental illness, often social outcasts.  Having some experience with mental illness in my family, I know that exercise is one of the good things you can do to help treat mental illness, so it's quite possible that the BSA's policies discouraging these activities are more likely to lead to school shootings rather than to prevent them.

 

While the Scouts who leave your units might not list BSA policies as the reason, I will bet you that a good number leave because they are bored.  Why are they bored?  Because sometimes our hands are tied with silly policies that prevent activities that were perfectly acceptable when we were kids, and when the list of fun things that we can't do keeps growing eventually leaders throw up their hands in frustration and settle into the same old boring routine... because if we try something new and fun it will get banned.

[Sentinel947]

 

 

While the Scouts who leave your units might not list BSA policies as the reason, I will bet you that a good number leave because they are bored.  Why are they bored?  Because sometimes our hands are tied with silly policies that prevent activities that were perfectly acceptable when we were kids, and when the list of fun things that we can't do keeps growing eventually leaders throw up their hands in frustration and settle into the same old boring routine... because if we try something new and fun it will get banned.

 

Fair enough. 

[ianwilkins]

Perfect example. Same thing with orienteering courses. Go figure. Helluva lot of fun and yet, we cannot do with anyone in the Cub program. Winter camping is another. No Klondike even for the day.

Seriously? No orienteering! What's wrong with orienteering?

 

Perplexed.

[Stosh]

Seriously? No orienteering! What's wrong with orienteering?

 

Perplexed.

 

They might get lost....

[Krampus]

Seriously? No orienteering! What's wrong with orienteering?

 

Perplexed.

 

Could you imagine if political correctness and helicopter parenting had hit Americans 150 years earlier? You guys would have had no problem taking back over the US...and we'd have never gone west. Mexico would be a lot bigger now.

[desertrat77]

Could you imagine if political correctness and helicopter parenting had hit Americans 150 years earlier? You guys would have had no problem taking back over the US...and we'd have never gone west. Mexico would be a lot bigger now.

Covered wagons with no airbags nor seat belts.  Pioneers crossed rivers without PFDs.  No weather app to determine if that cloud formation was potentially tornadic.  No rest stops to buy bottled spring water.  Unfiltered/untreated water, sipped from common-use canteens or dippers. 

 

How did they ever survive?

Edited April 8, 2016 by desertrat77

[qwazse]

Covered wagons with no airbags nor seat belts.  Pioneers crossed rivers without PFDs.  No weather app to determine if that cloud formation was potentially tornadic.  No rest stops to buy bottled spring water.  Unfiltered/untreated water, sipped from common-use canteens or dippers. 

 

How did they ever survive?

Ever see a pre 1850 burial plot? Most dates of death follow soon after dates of birth. Many lost wives and children.

 

So there is something to forestalling death. But sometimes we seem to just be forestalling frivolous litigation.