Crew and Sea Scouts are thin on the ground, and not available to most kids unlike cub scouts or boy scouts. IMO the BSA has scared off competent leadership fro

Crew and Sea Scouts are thin on the ground, and not available to most kids unlike cub scouts or boy scouts. IMO the BSA has scared off competent leadership from the local troops, digging the graves of the plethora of troops that have folded. There are a handful of high caliber troops out there today, but most do not have the organizational capability to do the best job possible for our youth. I speak from the perspective of a gay former patrol leader and life scout, my troop was great and gave me skills I couldn't get anywhere else at that age. I was (apparently) a positive influence on many of the kids that were in my patrol, but none of the troops in my region besides the one I spent half a decade in has been able to field a coherent presence at Camporee or any of the summer camps. These kids are missing out on opportunities to learn valuble life skills that the local troops used to readily teach.