Central New Jersey Council, BSA

What do you do if you have boys that are habitually absent from meetings and events, or pick and choose the events they participate in. Or boys that are in sports and use that as a reason for poor attendance.
For advancement purposes, BSA considers “active in the troop” to be a paid, registered member. It’s a vague description that doesn’t provide the opportunity for dealing with attendance issues.
Can a troop set criteria, separate from advancement, criteria that specify specific attendance requirements in order to be a member of that troop? If the criteria are not met the individual is not invited to return to the troop the following year.

I suspect there may be more than an attendance issue here.

The last line of your post really jumps out at me. How is telling a Scout he is not welcome to return serving him. Is it not better to have a boy involved in Scouting part time than not at all?

It’s a fact youth today have more opportunities than when I was a youth. They can play multiple sports throughout the entire year. Couple that with school and family or religious obligations and their available time is limited. It’s hard enough to compete with these other activities to get the boys involved in Scouting without imposing additional attendance requirements.

Yes, being active is required for advancement, but advancement is not required.

Now with that being said. It the Scout(s) in question only attend events where there is limited space, then I would set requirements on being able to attend those events. When I was a Scout we were attending the West Point Camporee and had limited space. I don’t remember the exact details but attendance, uniform inspections, merit badges, skill awards (I know I’m showing my age ) and rank advancements were tracked and used as a criteria for who was eligible to attend.

I hope this helps.

That's a tricky one.

While I certainly share your frustration, in practice, the boys who do not attend, do not advance. If your boys are managing to fulfill the requirements without frequent attendance, I say, more power to them! I wish I could use those skills at work! If they are not advancing, we can hope for positive peer pressure.

We are not allowed to add criteria to advancement requirements. Which you seem to be aware of by your phrasing "Can a troop set criteria... in order to be a member of that troop?"

I would not do that, as their sports may end, or their interest may pique, and you want to be there for them. As the previous poster says, who would that serve? Is this for a knot for you, that X% of boys must advance?

JMO

Thanks for the replies.
I didn't mean to make it sound that advancement was the goal of being in the program and I certainly don't disagree that part time exposure is better then none at all. Although my example made this appear to be an advancement issue, its not about advancement for me.
However, what generated this discussion was comments made by members of our troop. At a parents meeting, we were critisized for discussing attendance issues with the scouts in question. Parents took exception to the fact that their child might not achieve Eagle beacause they aren't showing up for meetings trips etc. It seems that attaining Eagle status was the goal of being in the troop.
Should a troop be responsible for maintaining members that choose not to partake in the goals of the other scouts in the troop?
Would a sports team allow a member to miss practice to attend a scout meeting?
I feel, as other members of my troop feel, that membership comes with a commitment not only to the group but to the program? The majority in our group have a commitment to the troop whereby we work very hard to maintain that commitment, even with other intrests.

It is a difficult one.

So if I understand correctly, advancement is not your carrot, but the parents' goal. But if the boys do not share this goal, they are not going to achieve it.

Eagle is used for college and job apps, etc., etc. But we hope that the boys learn enough along the way. Your parents sound so goal-driven.

greglake wrote:Should a troop be responsible for maintaining members that choose not to partake in the goals of the other scouts in the troop?
Would a sports team allow a member to miss practice to attend a scout meeting?

In my opinion, yes, and in my experience, yes. We all juggle - as adults, we need to commit more than the boys do. Our priorities differ. For one boy, it's scouts; for another, sports; for a third, religious instruction. Having a different top priority does not disqualify him from the others.

Just one food for thought: around Star Scout, I believe, the boys are required to serve in leadership positions. This requires a higher degree of commitment. How have your boys managed this?

Finally, in my own humble opinion, those who manage to juggle scouts toward the top of the list will be better off... and that will be the reward.

To add my 2 cents. Once a Scout accepts a Position of Responsibility, part of the Responsibility is a commitment to the Troop. Which means they must be more active and involved.

Also, I would expect a Scout who accepts a POR, that when there is a conflict with another activity, that Scouts would take precedent.

In our troop, we started this year with giving the boys a written description of the job they agreed to do. We found them on the internet that another troop out west had put together. (I have to look it up again)In these are 'suggestions' on attendance that sounds something like "a troop guide should attend atleast 65% of the meetings or events". We had them sign contracts agreeing to the jobs.
We also explained that the boys are accountable for their behavior. If they agree to the job, they better do the job or they may face not being able to advance.

Our troop has a similar issue. Most of it does seem due to the troop having prior commitments. Most of these commitments are viable, sports, school, vacations, and so on. I see it as a simple solution. Take a look at the meeting. Are you cooped up in a room? Are you being active? Do you meet in the same place every week? What sorts of scout building activities are you doing? Peer pressure is a wonderful thing, and I guarantee that if you make the meetings great, the boys will tell the missing boys, that they are missing out. Our campouts seem to have a limited turn out as well, and I'm pretty sure it's because of the food. lol. We had a meeting about a campout, and had a good turn out that night, we had the boys pan their menu, and magically, the turn out for the campout was smaller. coincidence?