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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I have never heard of size limits for Boy Scout troops. Is this particular troop extremely large? Did all of the other boys bridge over to that one group?

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The Web Site for the Troop shows a pretty small Troop. Some Troops like to be small, we looked at one that was under 25 kids and the Parents loved it. DS was not impressed with the Troop and there were some interesting age differences, lots of older and younger scouts but not much in between. They also didn't do much with the BSA offered Scout Leadership programs or the Adult Leadership programs. The Adult Leadership I spoke with liked that the camping was easy to coordinate and handle and that it was easier to plan outings because of the small number of kids.

The larger Troops that we looked at discussed how the kids made decisions and the different alternatives for kids based on the size of the Troop. There was more emphasis on the Scout Leadership opportunities and the adults being hands off.

Both approaches have their strengths and weaknesses but DS was drawn more to the larger Troops where the Scouts actively engaged with the Cubs who were attending events. I appreciated that one of the Troops observed two of our ADHD Cubs chattering a bit too much at closing circle. The Senior Patrol Leader put up the Scout Sign, a signal for everyone to be quiet, and waited for all the Scouts and Cubs to do the same. An Assistant Scout Master made his way to stand behind our Cubs and when the boys started chattering away again just gently touched their shoulders and reminded them to listen. His approach was calm and gentle and patient. You could see that the kids and adults had discussed how to maintain a meeting. But there was a level of chaos that I expect when you have 30-40 11-17 year olds in one place and the kids are running things. There were adults with each group of kids but they were standing back keeping an eye on things while letting the kids run things.

I would love to say that BSA is fully open and great to everyone but each unit is run by Parents and some units are more open then others. OP seems to have a poorly run Den, there is no way that the Den Leader should have allowed this to happen. He/She should have been open with the Den that the Troop was openly excluding two Den members. Each child/parent should have had that info to make their decision. Some might have still chosen to join that Troop. I suspect that every one in that Den knew what was happening and made the choice to go that route. Packs and Troops are allowed to reflect the chartering organizations structure, which is why there are Packs that remain boys only and some Troops are not open to kids who are LBGTQ or even different religions. Those Packs and Troops give off a very different vibe then the Packs and Troops that are more inclusive. Luckily, the NOVA area has a lot of Packs and Troops so it is not too hard to find Packs or Troops that are open to your child. We visited 5 different Troops in our area and they all felt different. There were three that I would have been happy to have DS join and 2 that I was not excited by.

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