Scouting the Web

Unbelievable....  

The SE (sorry he insists on being called CEO) for Atlanta Area Council makes waaay more than that.  Thus no FOS for me.  

I thought it would be useful to have information specific to Archery for Cub Shooting Sports events, training, etc...and Archery merit badge as well. I've created a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1076112180079482/?ref=share If you are new to Archery, being a Range Master/Range Safety Officer (RSO), or Archery in Scouting in general, please have a look and participate in the discussions.

Back in the day, when I served on the Pittsburgh and later the Syracuse council staffs we had the Scoutreach program. I know that in Syracuse it has been over a decade since the council provided services to low income city youth. With the rise in adolescent suicide, crime, drug use, failure to complete school and other serious issues, I have to question if one, do we have a responsibility to get scouting to these neighborhoods and two, if so, how do we manage to meet that responsibility and obligation?  In Syracuse, and I imagine in many other councils they don't have enough income to even maintain a minimal staff to support the remaining traditional scouting units let alone launch a Scoutreach program. I would imagine putting together an outreach that would include business, schools, churches, community centers and even law enforcement would be a great first step but where to go from there? Do we just let all of the social evils that exist in that population continue to destroy young lives or do we find a way to intervene? For 6 1/2 years I ran the Scoutreach program including running a troop myself and seeing that kids got to go camping, participate in district events and council cub and summer camps. I know it worked. A police officer at the center where my troop met told me some years later that 'none of my kids went through the system'. He thought it was important to tell me that because without scouting he pretty much knew that some of them would have gone down a dark path. Let me know what is happening in some of your councils to address this issue or thoughts on where councils/national need to go to meet the need or even if you think we ought to address this issue considering all the other hurdles the BSA has ahead of it. 

Many local councils had to sell properties and dip deeply into endowments in order to kick in their share of the settlement. AS you pointed out, the settlement will have long lasting financial consequences for the BSA and structured fee increases was and is a part of that settlement. I believe that part of that projection was predicated on membership growth which seems ridiculous on the face of it since the BSA has not had traditional membership growth since the early/mid 1970's. I believe the loss of the LDS church was factored into things but the impact of covid and the bad press from all the ads that the law firms ran not to mention the NBC documentary special on abuse in the BSA are things that will make it very difficult to maintain, let alone grow the program. Additionally, local councils tacking on insurance and service fees will make growth even more unlikely. The issue extends from the top to the bottom and it ain't going away!