Where did the boy scout thread go?

[Sigarms]

The sad reality at least in our local area, most parents can't actually afford to send their boys to our scout camp for a week because it costs about $500 for the full week and they can't afford it (in the defense of the camp, it's probably one of the better camps on the east coast). Even if we were to split the difference with the parents from the local funds raised (let alone cover it), we still didn't have enough to send everyone.

Moss, you pretty much detailed the same experiences in my local area.

I know for a fact one of my best friends is facing the same issues in his area in WV as a new scout leader.

 

[MossRoad]

I think we can all agree that most of these organizations would not succeed without the volunteer efforts of the parents of the kids involved, and that you'll only get out of them what you put into them.

What's surprising is that a lot of parents won't lift a finger, or make an offer, to assist, even in the slightest way. No money needed, just your time....

anyone? Anyone? (hears crickets and says :confused3

 

[Sigarms]

I think we can all agree that most of these organizations would not succeed without the volunteer efforts of the parents of the kids involved, and that you'll only get out of them what you put into them.

What's surprising is that a lot of parents won't lift a finger, or make an offer, to assist, even in the slightest way. No money needed, just your time....

anyone? Anyone? (hears crickets and says :confused3

I used to send e-mails to parents regularly, and sometimes even looking for responses. Funny enough, the one guy who always did respond to my e-mails is now the new leader.

What I found so funny, and perhaps I was breaking BSA policy, but we had a BB gun shoot "off the record" on my property after a meeting (which we held at my own home that weekend). Meeting was at 3, meeting finished up at 4, and we go out back to shoot at 4:15. NEVER one response on who would be coming or attending (the boys and fathers who showed up for the meeting all were planning to shoot afterwards anyways). Well, at 3:45 a car came down the drive way and the dogs upstairs were going ballistic. I excused myself from the meeting and went up to meet a father and his son coming to the "BB gun shoot" (but apparently couldn't make the meeting). I asked them to pull over on the lawn, and that we had 15 minutes to finish up our meeting, and then we would be coming out and then we would drive out back to do some shooting. I went back downstairs for the meeting. Came up around 4, and the car was no longer there? Funny enough, at 4:15 I get an e-mail from the wife of the guy that left, asking what happened? Told her I didn't know. Apparently the father got upset because I asked him to wait and we had to finish up our meeting. What's even more funny is I sent off a detailed e-mail giving the timetable on what and when we were doing things, but never got a reply back from them. Actually, the ONLY time I EVER got a e-mail from those two parents was over that incident. What's sad is that father wanted to pull his boy out of scouts over that one event. I felt real bad about it but one father, a local who was raised in town informed me that the guy was always "interesting" to deal with as long as he's known him. Just found it ironic that out of the 50 or so e-mails sent to these parents, never one reply, and the one reply I did get was about 15 mintues AFTER the father left. You would think common courtesy would be to inform me that they would be coming late and actually let me know they're coming.

Although I'm no longer in scouting, I still help the leaders now in place. As I've told them, I know EXACTLY what they're going through.

The kids never really burned me out, but sometimes the apathy on the parents side did.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I think we can all agree that most of these organizations would not succeed without the volunteer efforts of the parents of the kids involved, and that you'll only get out of them what you put into them.

What's surprising is that a lot of parents won't lift a finger, or make an offer, to assist, even in the slightest way. No money needed, just your time....

anyone? Anyone? (hears crickets and says :confused3

I spent many years helping, as a committee member (did all the tour permits for every outing), and went to many campouts, backpacking, hiking, summercamps, trash pickup along roads, bike trips,...
Lots of boring meetings, lots of fun times. You always battle those that want to take the fun out of it.

 

[Sigarms]

Lots of boring meetings, lots of fun times. You always battle those that want to take the fun out of it.

Try ensuring that all parents who drive other kids have car insurance to events:laughing:

One could argue that it was a bureaucracy run amok, but AFTER we found out a father didn't have car insurance after we read about it in the paper for a couple of trafic violations, some of the "pain in the butt" rules actually do make sense.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I wasnt in scouts as a youth, but went to 4H camps every summer. When i was 14 or 15, i was a counselor for the younger kid camps. I loved taking shooting and archery, actually i loved it all. Still have my safe hunter patch from then. When i was an older teen i taught the rifle classes.
It was so different then, to now in scouts.

 

[newbury]

<snip>
What's surprising is that a lot of parents won't lift a finger, or make an offer, to assist, even in the slightest way. No money needed, just your time....

<snip>

In my experience to many parents treated it as free baby sitting, little or no involvement except for making some projects.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

In my experience to many parents treated it as free baby sitting, little or no involvement except for making some projects.

We had some leaders that didn't want others involved, because they wanted to run things. But when they couldn't be there, they complained about the parents they chased away of not helping.

For tour permits i had to get all driver insurance info, etc. Was a pain.

 

[DrRod]

a. I still have my scout patch jacket with the NRA and PA Safe Hunter patches. And my long time friend and I both follow those rules to this day.

b. My son's troop had so many volunteer parents that we had to limit the number going along on the camping trips.

c. And yes, there were parents who used the campouts as baby sitting. When we first joined the troop it was full of super kids, several successfully used the Eagle as part of their quest for the Naval Academy. But then it morphed into a dumping ground for problem kids. Having said that, I sympathize with the parents and the kids who really needed help. But we were not equipped to do it. Those parents just loved dropping the kids off on Friday for a three-day respite and some of them made real sure you couldn't contact them. We even lost a kid for half a day [he was an habitual wanderer] and a couple of times needed to send a kid home [illness or behavior] but could not reach the parents. In this era of the cell phone, its hard to believe that it was accidental.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

The sad reality at least in our local area, most parents can't actually afford to send their boys to our scout camp for a week because it costs about $500 for the full week and they can't afford it (in the defense of the camp, it's probably one of the better camps on the east coast). Even if we were to split the difference with the parents from the local funds raised (let alone cover it), we still didn't have enough to send everyone.

Moss, you pretty much detailed the same experiences in my local area.

I know for a fact one of my best friends is facing the same issues in his area in WV as a new scout leader.

I have been to camp raven knob, mt airy NC twice. Very nice camp. This yr our troop is going back to Bangor Maine, another nice camp.