How about those who prefer leaders keep their hands off the kids?

[ianwilkins]

On 12/8/2017 at 5:11 PM, NJCubScouter said:

Our previous CC, a woman in her 40's-50's, when serving on an EBOR (for kids in our troop) would hug each successful Eagle candidate when the EBOR was concluded - in full view of his parent(s) and the other board members.  I shake their hands.  Nobody's filed a complaint so far...

End of last summer camp as we got off the coach to hand the explorers back to the parents a good number decided they wanted to give me a hug along with their thanks for a good camp. No complaints from the parents, it was rather heartwarming I thought.

Only time I can recall refusing a hug is when we were both having a swim, and she was in a bikini. Dear reader, you've never seen anyone backpedal in 4ft of water so fast as I did that day, arms raised, and a clear warning "no hugs! No hugs! Red alert! Red alert! No hugs!"

Oh, and you keep talking about French kisses as a greeting...wow, I thought you lot were uptight, but apparently not. Or have I mistranslated USA->UK English?

Edited December 11, 2017 by ianwilkins

[David CO]

53 minutes ago, Tampa Turtle said:

Please share your blocking technique when they move in for the hug? Is the crossed arm block, the straight out arms, or the shouted "NO!"?

No blocking technique is necessary. Every new student/scout goes through an orientation process which includes a video presentation from the bishop. Everyone knows the rules.

[Tampa Turtle]

Well that simplifies things. Yeah that no hugging rule gonna be real hard for Troops when teenage girls arrive in force IMHO. Of course as a well-middle aged man I have perfected my cloak of invisibility among teenage girls. I suspect that is better than being on the 'icky radar'.

[David CO]

Just now, Tampa Turtle said:

Well that simplifies things. Yeah that no hugging rule gonna be real hard for Troops when teenage girls arrive in force IMHO. 

I don't know why. The boys and girls seem to be able to follow the rules during school hours and other after-school activities. I have no reason to believe that they will suddenly lose their self-control at scouting activities.

I have my own objections to the inclusion of girls in scouting, but they have nothing to do with potential for rule violations.

[Back Pack]

You guys do know what goes on after lights out at camp, right? You’re not expecting teenage boys and girls not to sneak out and meet up, right? Kids don’t see a conflict between being good scouts and meeting up with the opposite sex when they get a chance. If you think boy will stay in their camp and girls will stay in theirs I think you may not know teenagers like you think. 

[David CO]

It's true. I have a very high opinion of my scouts. I stand convicted.

[Tampa Turtle]

19 minutes ago, David CO said:

I don't know why. The boys and girls seem to be able to follow the rules during school hours and other after-school activities. I have no reason to believe that they will suddenly lose their self-control at scouting activities.

I have my own objections to the inclusion of girls in scouting, but they have nothing to do with potential for rule violations.

I see boy-girl hugging (usually initiated by the girls as a friendly gesture) all the time at a number of in-school and after school activities: Marching Band, Ecology Club, Junior ROTC. I do not consider it as a loss of self control but as a different style of greeting. Naturally some boys seem a little happy when a especially pretty girl gives them 'you are such a good friend' hug even though the dreaded 'friend' word is uttered. My wife has a theory that with all the virtual screen time going on their is a craving for a little more physical contact.

 

[Tampa Turtle]

3 minutes ago, David CO said:

It's true. I have a very high opinion of my scouts. I stand convicted.

We can agree on that. I suspect we have had several sets of Gay scouts tenting together and I have never heard of any hanky panky going on. I am not advocating mixed gender tenting but I think we can trust them, within reason. 

[RememberSchiff]

Let's stay on topic. This is about adult leader physical contact.

[NJCubScouter]

59 minutes ago, ianwilkins said:

Only time I can recall refusing a hug is when we were both having a swim, and she was in a bikini. Dear reader, you've never seen anyone backpedal in 4ft of water so fast as I did that day, arms raised, and a clear warning "no hugs! No hugs! Red alert! Red alert! No hugs!"

That sounds like a wise move.  Hopefully she understood why you were fleeing.

That reminds me a little of something that happened when George W. Bush, was visiting the U.S. women's volleyball team while he was president.  The story is recounted here in one of your UK newspapers:  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/aug/11/georgebush.olympics2008 

Quote

Oh, and you keep talking about French kisses as a greeting...wow, I thought you lot were uptight, but apparently not. Or have I mistranslated USA->UK English?

From your reaction, I take it that "French kiss" means the same thing in US and UK, but that is not what people are talking about when they refer to the "French kissy thing."  They mean kissing someone on both cheeks, and according to MattR (and I have no reason to doubt him) you don't even actually kiss the cheek, it is more like a cheek to cheek thing.

Edited December 11, 2017 by NJCubScouter

[MattR]

1 hour ago, NJCubScouter said:

 From your reaction, I take it that "French kiss" means the same thing in US and UK, but that is not what people are talking about when they refer to the "French kissy thing."  They mean kissing someone on both cheeks, and according to MattR (and I have no reason to doubt him) you don't even actually kiss the cheek, it is more like a cheek to cheek thing.

Me thinks Ian was being a bit cheeky (and that would be the British definition, not the French definition).

[NJCubScouter]

6 minutes ago, MattR said:

Me thinks Ian was being a bit cheeky (and that would be the British definition, not the French definition).

Probably.  I sometimes have trouble knowing when someone is making a joke in a post.  From past experience in this forum, I am not the only one who has that problem.

[Col. Flagg]

9 minutes ago, NJCubScouter said:

Probably.  I sometimes have trouble knowing when someone is making a joke in a post.  From past experience in this forum, I am not the only one who has that problem.

I suspect the international sign of using a  when it was a joke. Or maybe it's just having spent 3 years in public school in London that allows me to interpret.

Edited December 11, 2017 by Col. Flagg

[perdidochas]

On 12/8/2017 at 10:07 AM, RememberSchiff said:

Point taken, CO's touching policies as applied to scout units are on topic.

Regarding those policies, I have found church CO's to be stricter with their scout units than the church school was with their sports team. 

Sad to say, it's because for whatever reason, scouters have a worse reputation in terms of molesters than do coaches.  

[perdidochas]

On 12/8/2017 at 1:28 PM, WisconsinMomma said:

My objection is to this hanging Bobcats upside down for pinning their patch nonsense.  I understand it was done long ago, but I'm glad it's gone.  It was interesting that someone mentioned it, I had never heard of it before.   Given that the BSA has discouraged the practice and it hasn't been around for more than 20 years, it's not really a problem.  As far as being a new person to Scouting, yes, it's not the 1990's anymore.   That's where I was going with the touching -- the holding kids upside down -- that's no good.   Don't approve, BSA got it right. 

Well, in Cubs, we used to pin the badges on upside down (with the scout right side up), until they did a good deed.