Trail Life

[Eagle94-A1]

1) @@LeCastor  

 

2)  The only TL unit I knew about in my neck of the woods closed shop. Do not know what happened. I found out when one of their church members joined the pack that my troop is affiliated with.

[Deaf Scouter]

Honestly I never thought they would be strong to overcome BSA.  Too much of their materials were copied from BSA so there is the copyright infringement.  

 

The other is if it really bothered people about the vote, all they had to do was switch troops to one that fit their beliefs.  Even in Scouting we have differences in troops so their is bound to be one that fits.  

 

Last is the volunteer.  The person who started up would quickly find that they are doing so much work.  We already know this in BSA that many wear many hats so why would it be any different in TL?

[EmberMike]

BPSA seems to have peaked as well. I gathered from their website there was a leadership transition. I certainly hope they gain a little momentum.

 

 

I like the BPSA, and considered it for my family a few years back. Since then it doesn't seem like there's been much growth. One thing that put me off of it a bit was that there is no insurance protection for anyone involved. Supposedly some groups secured their own coverage privately, but something about getting no help form HQ in that regard was a bit concerning to me. Maybe that's changed since, not sure. Just seems to be that at a basic level, any youth-oriented organization needs to support local units with some kind of basic coverage. 

 

Trail Life does cover all scouters and units. 

Edited February 16, 2017 by EmberMike

[fred johnson]

One thing that I did like about Trail Life was the web site and information layout.  I'll give them that.  Who ever put it together did an outstanding job.  As for the program materials, they looked thin and tightly modeled from BSA.

 

IMHO, I think BSA should look at Trail Life to see what they changed and perhaps reflect on improvements to the BSA program.  

[EmberMike]

IMHO, I think BSA should look at Trail Life to see what they changed and perhaps reflect on improvements to the BSA program.  

 

 

BSA has never been short on ideas for things to change. It's getting people to buy into the change that is always the hard part, and why program change often comes so slowly. 

[wdfa89]

"I was checking out their site and noticed that you don't need to sew on rank patches - they will hang from the temporary badge button under the pocket.  I think that's a great idea!"

 

Let me offer a suggestion gained from years of switching unit patches on my flight suit:  velcro.  On my son's uni we use it for rank, position, patrol.  makes swapping easy.  I use it on mine for position.  A friend who has switched units a lot (military moves) has it for every single patch on his shirt.

 

anyway, I know that wasn't the focus of the thread but compelled to comment

[sst3rd]

Just something that struck me personally. I just received a notification from my lodge that a dear friend and mentor of mine had passed away. Our lodge has a great administrator that stays on top of everything. Anyway, this note also included a copy of his obituary. It mentions the normal stuff, and then notes his over 40 years in the BSA. It also mentions that he recently started a Trail Life troop at his church (as I guess they got rid of the long standing BSA troop). And of course at the end of the obituary it asks that in lieu of flowers, to please make a donation to the Trail Life troop at his church.

 

I had been on many committees and training staffs with Bill. An outstanding Scouter and gentleman, but most importantly to me, a friend. Lots of great memories. So, it just came across a bit weird. But that's just me. Just an observation.

 

sst3rd

[Stosh]

One must always go with where one's heart and passion leads them.  It would seem that somewhere along the way this gentleman stood at a fork in the trail and made a choice.  A historical life long record of a person's passion doesn't guarantee that passion will be there for that drive in the future.

 

My ministry background, my BSA background, my EMT-A background, my volunteering background all came together  this week.

 

I got in 3 hours of religious concerns on Sunday,

3 hours with troop involvement in Memorial Day activities

20 hours with Red Cross at a regional leadership summit gathering (Yes, I skyrocketed from filling out an application to a regional lead position in about a year's time because of my diverse background)

13 hours with Red Cross as the Mass Care Lead at a grain mill explosion a couple of days ago one might have seen on the national news this week.

 

I see nothing wrong with the growth and development of a man with 40+ years of work in one organization not going and developing in another area.  Maybe that new passion needs the money more and one's legacy is important in life.   I have 40+ yeas in scouting, and if my passion was for a boy-development program, there's nothing weird with going Trail Life all-boy, heavy emphasis on moral development, over BSA if those areas are changing there.