more scouting frustration
 

as of today, I believe that only one scout is planning to attend my grand "survival campout."

if this was the govt., I guess I would have submitted my resignation.

unbelievably lame. I guess we should count the fact that most kids go to church or at least Wed. activities as a victory.

Time to further lower expectations.

I'd be curious to know what happened to Scouting. When I was of that age, there were 20+ kids in my troop (which was my home ward) who participated on a regular basis. I believe 15 got their Eagle rank.

My son loves it, despite the fact that there are only 4 kids who regularly attend activities. And those 4 boys are from the entire stake.

What is it about Scouting that causes kids to not want to participate?

old age for one thing. Boys that are 15-18 are less likely to participate. And we have only one deacon. We have another 12 year old with developmental issues, and he doesn't go on campouts yet. We are incorporating 11 years olds into the troop (because we can't apparently man a 11yr old program), but they can only go on 3 campouts, and father must attend.

We have one older boy who is a hard core scouter. But he has a school activity.

So right now only the one deacon is planning to attend.

We don't have many young men, because we live in the dallas school district, and many parents feel that it is a form of child abuse to send their kids to Dallas schools.

Can I assume the Dallas School District is in or near inner city Dallas? That could explain it.

I grew up in the suburbs where more young kids lived, but even today in Salt Lake's suburbs, scouting is not like it was. My wife's cousin is Bishop of his ward where they have three (yes, that's 3) deacons quorums. Out of all those kids, only 5 or 6 have shown any interest in scouts.

It's too bad really. While I wasn't excited that my dad was the scoutmaster, I do have fond memories of being a boy scout. Fun times.

We may end up combining a few wards into a single troop.

I don't know if it is possible to have an effective program with 5 boys. The structure becomes meaningless. You can't even have 2 patrols.

That's what our stake did. I suppose it had to do it in order to even have a troop.

I forget - how many scouts are in a patrol? 6-8?

I think the stake troops are becoming more and more common throughout the US church. In the town I grew up in, they are doing this very thing. And this is not too far removed from when I was a kid when scouting was very strong.

At the very least, many wards are combining with one or 2 other wards to make a "normal" sized troop. I've been in wards/troops with 2-3 scouts. Its not very fun. I can sympathize.

Most kids in our ward couldn't get their driver's license until they got their Eagle. I don't know if that's a common LDS theme or just something that was done in the ward. One of my friends decided to test the system and didn't get his Eagle until he was almost 18. He didn't get his driver's license until his 18th birthday. The lengths kids will go to irritate their parents.

Good news. 3 kids coming to the campout. That is a 200% increase from what I was expecting.

Taking the shotgun. To shoot clay targets.

I'm glad you clarified your reason for taking the shotgun. Unless, of course, you say "here kid, hold this target for me."