Wavering Webelos

Last week, I got to visit a Webelos scout at his home. His mom had asked me to come by and chat about how Boy Scouts works and what the troop does.
Her son is very involved in music and other activities and they decided he needed to choose between continuing scouts or joining another music group. I think that's a healthy thing - choosing what you want rather than trying to cram everything into a boy's life. There's room for scouting and other things, but not everything.

When I was growing up in small towns, my choices were church youth group, sports, or playing with friends. There was room for all of it. But, now my kids get to choose between sports, music, theater, scouts, church, math club, and even more opportunities. There's no way to do it all, so choices do need to be made.

You scoutmasters should really make sure the cubmasters and Webelos den leaders in your area understand you are available to chat with their scouts about Boy Scouting. Go to a den meeting where they are comfortable and take a bunch of patches or mementos of troop outings. I show off sticks I've carved on our high adventure trips.
Next Friday, I get to visit with 3 Webelos that have not yet decided about Boy Scouts. I'm going to ask them to just try it for the summer and see what its like. Commit to going on 3 outings and then decide if they want to do summer camp or not. By then they either love it or are ready to drop it.

By the way, at church today, that musically inclined Webelos scout came up to me and said he's joinging the troop!

Scout On