Supply Division Wish List
Ed Henderson (BigEdBSA@AOL.COM)
Tue, 17 Dec 1996 19:55:16 -0500
Oh I love this!!!!! Madkins007@aol.com has made up a supply division wish
list. What fun!
First Madkins007 you don't have to wait decades for supply division to get
around to making up a "Program helps on index cards". Or as it was put
"something along the line of a series of almost trading cards where you would
buy a packet of cards on a similar topic, such as openings, songs, prayers,
skits, etc. so you could a.- build your library in an orderly fashion....
pull out and photocopy cards to put together a good meeting hand-out without
retyping it all." A company called Derita Reporter has made two 4 x 6 very
inexpensive card sets of about 100 pages each on Skits, Games (two books in
each set) as well as Challenging Troop & Patrol Activities. These are in a
ring binder so they can be removed and returned at will. E-Mail
BSAstore@aol.com for info on getting these
As for my own wishs......
* A COMPREHENSIVE booklet with REQUIREMENTS for all adult leader knots
(Yes, this was the top request I heard from adult leaders each summer)
* A COMPREHENSIVE for general distribution listing of all bin publications of
the BSA. (You thought supply division was paper headquarters, wait till you
see some of the wonderful free (for your council professional staff)
publications that could be improvingscouting in your district if only someone
knew about them & would order them and use them).
* DUMP THE $3,000,000 Product liability insurance requirement for suppliers.
As long as BSA supply division has that rule, no one wants to do business
with them (dozens of firms have told the BSA they are pulling out of the
"official product of the BSA" program. All of the rest have passed this
added cost directly onto their costs. Each year the product line up lets
less and less and soon, those camps that rely on Supply Division for all of
their needs will not have a very complete selection of gear.
* REALIZE THAT YOU ARE IN A COMPETATIVE WORLD AND SET PRICES ACCORDINGLY. I
get real anoid when I see "Official Victornox Boy Scout Knives (Swiss Army)
in the BSA Catalog for one price, and I can go to dozens of other wholesale
sources and get the same "Official Product of the BSA knives" with the same
BSA logo on them for 15 - 30% less than the official BSA wholesale cost. You
would think a council or camp would get the best deal possible from the BSA
Supply Division folks but it turns out that their own licensed, branded
merchandise complete with the Yellow & Black Packaging is available from many
other sources, always at a cheaper cost. When I have brought this up to my
BSA Supply Rep I get the story about "Well its for the BSA, it helps support
scouting....etc. (A portion of all supply division profits also goes into the
BSA Professionals retirement fund, so there is a strong disincentive for the
BSA professional to overlook best price and buy from the club). As a
volunteer I find this argument totally opposed to the line the BSA preachs on
the Unit Fundraising Application I have to fill out in triplicate whenever I
do a troop sale. There I am reminded repeatedly that whatever my scouts are
selling should stand on its own merits and not on the good name and goodwill
of the BSA. What is good for the goose is good for the gander, come on
supply division I DO SUPPORT SCOUTING but I am not going to be prodded into
buying overpriced merchandise which causes my council and camp to loose
revenues just to prop up the Scout Executive retirement fund!
The perfect example of how out of line these prices are is the "Official
Basketry Kits" that hundreds of camps purchase from Supply Division each
summer. Even in vast quantity the kits are WHOLESALE for $3.67 with a
suggested retail of $5.80. This summer I was able to purchase a better kit
(complete) for under $2.00 which we sold for $3.25. In other words a
Tenderfoot scout could do his Basketry Merit Badge (requirement # 1 anyway)
for $.42 less at our camp than other councils could even buy their kits for
wholesale.
Supply Division would do well to consider these items as well:
* Test market a CD rom version of Comprehensive Scouting Literature
* Bring back the Cargo Pocket Pants
* Streamline your council catalogs, standardize names & descriptions so they
are consistent
* Start making a real effort to carry more of the wonderful books, games and
other scouting items that are out there that have been written by volunteers
but are not carried in the supply catalog. How many scouters out there would
love to get a copy of such gems like Creative Courts of Honor, Go for the
Eagle: A Guide to Scoutings Highest Honor; Tenderfeet on Eagle Wings; the
Eagle Scout Court of Honor Book; Need a Cheer? Find it here: A Collection of
501 Scouting Cheers!; The Original Scouting Trivia Board Game, etc. These
are just a few of the top selling books that scouters have gone nuts for at
Pow-Wow, Scout Shows and camps I have taken our camp trading post to.
* Encourage rather than stifle efforts by scout councils to carry a generous
selection of BSA Supply Division stuff while ALSO carrying other good lines
of camping and scouting merchandise from other sources. Every year that I
have been involved in retail operations at summer camp I have always
purchased more from BSA Supply Division than from any other source, and I am
sure I always will. I just don't buy EVERYTHING from them no matter the
quality or price. I have had scout shop operators tell me that when the
supply reps come around they usually get onto them for having anything at all
in the store that does not come from the one official BSA Supply Division.
That is why so many people like th trading post we run. You can always get
stuff from Scouts Canada, the British Scouting Association, Collectables, BSA
Hacky Sacks, whatever! These same people tell me they don't even bother with
most scout shops because they are all cookie cutter copies of each
other....if you looked at the BSA Catalog then you know everything they are
going to carry. Scout Shop Managers should be encouraged to try other items,
good ones might them be picked up nationally by supply division (more money
for them, I am sure they like that!).
Let me say these opinions are mine as a volunteer scouter. They do not
represent the position of any council or camp. While I do have some
reservations about the BSA Supply Division folks let me stress they have
their place in scouting. Some councils could not do a trading post without
the liberal credit policies they extend to camps & councils (order in March &
pay your bill in September). No one in the private sector gives those kind
of terms.
YIS,
Ed Henderson
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
