Open Discussion - Program

Bring back the pioneering and Native American skills and games that were in the old Cub Program.   Let them play games that they can get filthy dirty in. Our fall hike was based on the old Bear leaf ID elective and the kids had a blast stomping around to identify them with an arborist dad.   One Grampa in the group found paw prints near the water and the cubs were trying to ID them back at the luncheon with the old stalking/tracking MB books the troop in town keeps on hand. 
  parents need to let the youth fail - fail at making a fire, or a meal or having their tent set up so it doesn’t leak.   It’s not like they’re being sent into the woods solo to fail - there are friends and adults there so it doesn’t get dangerous. 
  STEM/STEAM is good but they get that at school. What about letting the kids make the connection from ‘old’ skills to the STEMy stuff themselves. 

Actually they are voting today I believe, announcement tomorrow   if the They includes scout execs I know ours will vote for more $$. He has to protect his well over $200k every year (yes it’s that high.  Saw & read the annual report). He actually makes more than a few superintendents of schools in the council area. 
  no matter how large and well funded a unit is. The increase in fees will have a negative impact on the program that can be delivered at the local level. Something that seems to have been lost on the bombardiers of this latest adventure. 

Actually they are voting today I believe, announcement tomorrow. We are a large well funded troop, but there is a huge difference between a $10 rate increase or a $70 rate increase.  We charter about 100 Scouts and leaders, looking at what could be a $7,000 shortfall, so options are limited

Maybe trying to figure out how to extricate yourself from the financial disaster that is Summit Bechtel, that is $500 MM - $750 MM that will never be used to support local Scouting programs.  Needed money that was poured (shoveled??) into a vanity project by the Chief Scout Executive and the National Board who are so far removed from actual Scouting it's like a they are in another organization.

The challenge with all the information available in our society today is that it's really difficult to make sense of questions like priorities. The BSA's priorities are different depending on who you talk to.  If you're the Chief Scout Executive or the national board, what's more important - fostering an outdoor program that already exists or trying to stave off financial disaster, continual declines in membership, or abuse lawsuits? If you're a local Scout Executive, is it outdoor program or keeping your council camp open and stopping membership losses? If you're a Scoutmaster is it outdoor program, patrol method, or something else? I think it's part of our culture today that we all get online and discuss the topic of the day.  Hopefully most Scouters are with it enough that they put all this in proper context.