Founded pack folded

[mashmaster]

I found out tonight that the pack that we started when my son was a Wolf folded at the end of the year.  So much time and effort, started with 10 scouts, quickly rose to 80+ scouts, stayed active and thriving until the parents and scouts from that 80 moved on.  I saw the righting on the wall, but it makes me so bummed.

Somewhere there is a really nice trailer and pinewood derby track that the scouts worked hard to raise money for.  A school of 800 youth are now unserved by cub scouts.

[fred8033]

@mashmaster ... I'm sorry.  It's hard when so much is invested and is lost soon after.  I've seen it on both ends (packs and troops).  It's just one of many strong indicators that the BSA scouting program needs significant re-engineering.

[InquisitiveScouter]

It's going around...

Our council lost eleven units at recharter.  Don't know the mix of Packs/Troops/Crews, but it isn't good, in any case.

[Eagle94-A1]

Yes it is going around. We have a troop that CO is kicking them out end of May. They have not recharted, but are still meeting while trying to find a new home.

[Eagle1993]

We lost several units but I still think some of this is Covid hangover.  I expect everything will be back to normal this fall.  It will be important for BSA to be ready to rebound then.

[mashmaster]

The Pack made it 10 years, but from what I saw.  The group I was with built a fabulous program and it thrived.  The next group maintained, then the following group didn't adapt and change, they just stopped doing and being engaged.  So the end was written before Covid.  I think Covid accelerated it.

[InquisitiveScouter]

The life of all Scout units is bound up more in the adult volunteers and parents than in the youth...

I'm not sure BSA really gets this...  That is, it seems the marketing is to try to appeal to youth primarily.  They see all the adventure advertising and say, "Hey, I'd like to do that!"

Parents sign them up and are then told, "Hey, you have to help plan, organize, train, and support that!"

Classic bait and switch?

With our prospective parents/youth who visit our unit, we tell them we recruit parents first.  We expect parents to participate on some level in the program.

 

[qwazse]

As I’ve mentioned before, a pandemic is a terrible reason to halt program. I understand that’s harder to do in some places than others. From what I could tell in our pack it was done with tremendous cost in outlay of time and talent. They rarely asked us in the troop for help. They are still working on a delayed schedule. They mentioned cost concerns at a committee meeting that was primarily about crossovers and B&G, and I emptied my wallet in the spot. (Don’t worry, it was mid week, there wasn’t that much in it.)

But, like any youth program, you need people who have to want it to be there. We have those people. I’m sorry @mashmaster’s successors do not.

[yknot]

1 hour ago, qwazse said:

As I’ve mentioned before, a pandemic is a terrible reason to halt program. I understand that’s harder to do in some places than others. From what I could tell in our pack it was done with tremendous cost in outlay of time and talent. They rarely asked us in the troop for help. They are still working on a delayed schedule. They mentioned cost concerns at a committee meeting that was primarily about crossovers and B&G, and I emptied my wallet in the spot. (Don’t worry, it was mid week, there wasn’t that much in it.)

But, like any youth program, you need people who have to want it to be there. We have those people. I’m sorry @mashmaster’s successors do not.

I don't think it is as simple as people who want it vs. people who don't. The pandemic was really hard for a lot of people. Just dealing with the random stop/start of quarantining out of work or having kids quarantining or losing family members who helped with child care was and still is hard to manage.  

[InquisitiveScouter]

At the Troop, we cancelled one camping trip, and did about 4 meetings and two PLCs on Zoom.  As soon as it was warm enough, we had all meetings outside, and did one-per-tent camping trips.  Even designed and did our own Summer Camp.

[qwazse]

1 hour ago, yknot said:

I don't think it is as simple as people who want it vs. people who don't. The pandemic was really hard for a lot of people. Just dealing with the random stop/start of quarantining out of work or having kids quarantining or losing family members who helped with child care was and still is hard to manage.  

@yknot, by “people”, I am specifically referring to people who are not parents who will insist that a given pack should persist in their community under the sponsorship of their organization.

My parents were thrown into chaos two years ago, but I told the committee that I would take a troop to any camp on any week that they could find if one other adult with integrity would go with me. Given my offer (it wasn’t charity on my part … I needed it as much as the scouts did), the parents from what was then two troops rallied to make it happen. There were a half dozen folks like that … including our COR who was in no condition to meet with any of us, but kept in touch with each committee chair to let them know that the CO wanted them to keep up the good work. That got passed along to parents. Not in a “you have to do …” tone but in a “what you’re doing is really important…” tone.

[mashmaster]

I did notice very much that many units just stopped and refused to adapt during the pandemic.  Our Ship was able to adapt and grow over the last year.  We did lots of things different from the past and we try to be open with the youth and parents for creative solutions. 

All units are as strong as the amount of volunteers they have.  We are constantly in the situation of having to get enough adults to go camping and sailing.  It is a heavy burden on a few people, that I fear will stop being able to help out.  We have had to cancel events because of not enough adults.  That hurts the youth.

[InquisitiveScouter]

9 hours ago, mashmaster said:

I did notice very much that many units just stopped and refused to adapt during the pandemic.  Our Ship was able to adapt and grow over the last year.  We did lots of things different from the past and we try to be open with the youth and parents for creative solutions. 

All units are as strong as the amount of volunteers they have.  We are constantly in the situation of having to get enough adults to go camping and sailing.  It is a heavy burden on a few people, that I fear will stop being able to help out.  We have had to cancel events because of not enough adults.  That hurts the youth.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^This

[Eagle94-A1]

During covid we also did a few zoom meetings, but as soon as we were able to meet outside, we did. While we did not camp as much as we usually do, 9 weekends a year plus summer camp, we switched to day trips for a bit, and then when able to camp, we did some camping within a 1 hour drive. Summer camp was touch and go for a bit, but the local camp did open up and we did our own 5 day camp.