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I bet they won't send you anymore surveys now.

Now that's the ticket... ....Say that's a ticket idea for aspiring WBers. With pride, I was part of a group of scouters that built a latrine. It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far,far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. A lot of Field of Dream whisper lines during construction.

My council is notorious for losing paperwork. Most often, it isn't lost per se. More that the form is lacking some information or something is incomplete or not checked off, so instead of communicating the situation back to the unit/individual, they toss it and you have to figure it out months later and submit new paperwork. And likewise, even when it is received and processed, that isn't always updated on the right systems. Add the fact that some committees are horrible at following the status of things online and you can have situations where a leader is not official registered for over a ye

The sobering part may be all the units that have NOT begun working through the math. They got the note but are assuming it will be another $10 - $12 increase. Suppose you are a NEW unit, just bee bopping along, planning for next year fun and adventures, etc etc. You know the fee is $33 now, you've got 10 Scouts and maybe 6 leaders, so you have the $528 ready, possibly hedged about $160 for the increase. BUT WAIT - you will actually need (worst case) $1,600 or an additional $1,072 in total. This will be a shock to the system. Also if it does go to worst case, now new Scouts will

I agree with this. I think they sent out the most recent one to test the waters before this rate increase hits. I wonder if we will see another one afterwards or at the beginning of the year? These are the 3 areas I said could use improvement and my responses. I saw it as an opportunity for a couple rants. :

Yes, back in the day, we looked forward to our annual fall (Indian Summer) outing at scout camp - latrine and water at campsite, tent platforms, a phone up at ranger house. Luxury. IMO, if all camp fees stayed with the camp , say a separate camp cost center, camps would be self-sustaining. I remember as ASPL to book the above outing, I called camp ranger and paid fee when we arrived Friday night. No council web app, server,... Lean summer camp payroll, still CIT's did not pay for the privilege of working at camp. Thrifty. But back to the OP, for us since Cub camping is f

I appreciate the many responses here. Unfortunately, no clear-cut answer. Here's why I posted. Our council (or district) runs a Cub-o-ree which is all-day Saturday with an overnight allowed into Sunday. I personally like two-night campouts so I inquired to the DE running the event if our pack could come Friday night. There is where she explained Cubs only camp for one-night (and then sent me that link previously posted). Because I have set in motion two-night camping for our pack for the last two years I was curious. She even admitted that packs in her own district don't follow that rule, but

I’m the Troop Committee Chair for a brand new troop, and it’s been a rocky start. Here’s how things could have been done better. I find it very odd that BSA seems to provide very little guidance on how to start new units. Isn’t one of the most important jobs of the Scout Executive to work to start new Scouting units? And yet the formal guidance on how to do so is almost nonexistent. There’s some in the Unit Performance Guide, and that’s all I’ve found, except an outdated document called “New Unit Organization Process." The principal factor in starting a new Scou

Actually, building the latrine was one of the first things we had to do at the start of my week long Wood Badge course back in '72! Didn't even count toward my ticket!!🤣 We usually end up sharing a campsite, since we generally take a dozen or so to camp. We then switch off days with the other troop being responsible for cleaning the shower room.

Well let's do the math 2,500,000 (Youth / Leaders / All in / Rounded up for ease of math) @ $33 = $82,500,000 less 525,000 LDS folks departing (yes yes I know, they may not have paid the full fees, lot of neat deals made, but let's press on) 1,975,000 (remaining) @ $33 = $65,175,000 Basic projected shortfall of $17,325,000 OR $8.77 per remaining participant to cover. That does not factor in the insurance increase, Summit Bechtel Reserve Tax, Scouting Professional Pension shortfalls, liability to abuse cases holdback, and a myriad of other financial woes hanging around out

I'm on the $49 train. We currently have a poll going on our office.

Regarding bathrooms/showers, etc ... Do your troops take it in rotation to clean your camp's showers? I know as a scout up until a few years ago mine did. Heck, I built* my camps' latrine. *Okay, "built" was quite a stretch ... kinda like how Al Gore and I built this here internet ... but my limited involvement in latrine assembly was because of a sudden bout of flu. It was mostly scouts slapping up posts and plywood while I huddled in a corner fighting chills.

Well, we are both Floridian's, but it looks like you are just north of me, in North Florida Council. I am in Central Florida Council, and was referring to the set up at Camp La-No-Che. We were at Woodruff in July of 18. That was the camp that labeled the adult showers as for both adult and for female youth. There were quite a few of them in the block we used, so there were no issues (also, if I remember correctly, there were no female units that used that particular shower block) Daniel Boone had a shower house with 18 individual rooms; I think that the fact that they all had locking

Absolutely. We did what we could, when we could. Some things we had to wait on that were beyond our control - for example, one potential CO was not be able to consider the idea of taking on a new troop until after they had completed a change of institutional head. So we did what we could, when we could, while hoping that the other things would eventually work out. For much of 2018 we did not know whether we would really get a troop up and running.

I don't agree with the idea that $1000/year is still a great deal. It may be a great deal for those kids that are on crazy competitive soccer, or marching band, or mill your own robot parts. The parents of these kids can more easily afford this. But scouting is supposed to be for all kids. In the land of under employed, $1000/year is still a lot of money. Sometimes it has to get worse before it gets better. Maybe it would be better if the BSA just filed chapter 11 now. I'm optimistic enough about scouting that something good will come up from the ashes. Again, the problem isn't scouting.

I brought up the subject of fee increases to the SM/COR in my troop and they had no idea it was coming. Desertrat77 and I share the same council, so I'm thankful he stated that council is clueless. At least now I know why my troop hasn't heard anything yet. My troop and myself like so many others, can not generally absorb sudden fee increases. I tend to do long term planning to avoid the sudden major fees, like summer camp. If I plan on going next year, I drop $20 a month into my scout account so that I can stay ahead of the wave. However when my son was in scouting, we didn't do that fo

No SE, national or council wide should see a raise or bonus for this year or the next till everyone sees how it all plays out. Its reminiscent of the government bailout of 2008 where we footed the bill but the big wig CEO's of those companies still got bonuses and came out smelling like a rose but their company and employees took the brunt of the mess. If our troop camps every month next year and my son and I both go it would cost me about $600 for just for the food costs. Depending on where we camp if there are fees. It will be more. Then you have our current monthly dues of $10

@Jameson76, thanks for the real-world perspective, the math that units are working through is sobering. I agree, it's scramble time for National. Their unapologetic silence speaks volumes.

At our pack meeting last night, several parents started talking that they don’t want to bail out the BSA from their past sins (sex abuse). The discussion came up as I had to stop parents paying registration fees until we hear from National BSA. It will be a tough message if they see a large fee increase tied to anything related to creating a victims fund. I mentioned insurance and they scoffed. A couple parents told me their sons play football and they sign waivers as the football teams no longer have insurance for head or neck injuries. I mentioned health insurance and they pushed

Your outline does a great job of capturing the details and tasks needed to be achieved in forming a new unit. Our non-linked all-girl unit had a long lead time, so we were able to have 2 advertised summer “community meetings” for adults who might be interested in involvement in forming a new Troop. We gathered about 10 interested parents and the came up with our vision of the unit. Those people then went shopping for a CO and found the best one in September. We then activated a web site in October, got trained in November, recruited in January via 2 open houses (the core girls came from th

Nope. The best way is for the already enthusiatic scouts (or scouts-to-be) to invite their friends and sisters. We started with 2 interested girls. Six more joined because they were invited by friends (the orginal two or scouts recuited by the original two). Three found us via the web (beascout or our own website). Two girls found us because the local boys' troop advertised among their families. We took part in two scouts/cubs recruiting sign-up events. ZERO SCOUTS found us through sign-up events.

There; I fixed it; what do you think? Find a chartering organization. A chartered organization is the community organization that “owns” the unit. It provides leadership, meeting facilities, and other resources to the unit. Obviously nothing can happen without finding a chartering organization first. This wasn’t skipped in my unit’s case, but I could see someone trying to round up sufficient Scouts prior to finding (or establishing) a chartering organization. Of course, if the reason you’re trying to start a new unit is that you already ha

Only if it fits the already decided upon agenda

Several of the BSA surveys I've responded to over the years have used design mechanisms that can skew answers. Many surveys do this and it's why you have to be skeptical of survey results. When BSA issues a survey, they are generally looking for data that will support some marketing message they will eventually spin out.

@Jackdaws, I believe they read the surveys. But that's all they do. Councils and National work to their own complete satisfaction. Anything other than praise is ignored.

I first attended WB in 1982, SE-293. I then attended WB for 21st Century, and is was very different from the last course. I have also participated in many courses and they were all a little different. I am going to attend the Summit course in Jan 2020 as a participant and I'm sure that it will be quite different from the first 2 courses that I attended. No matter if you took the Explorer Leader course at Schiff or the newest of the new course at the Summit, they all provide an enjoyable and informative training opportunity.

Maybe the BSA is playing 4 dimensional chess. See, if they get the rumor mill started that annual dues are going to $100, then announce an increase from $33 to $67, everybody will be relieved even though the dues doubled! Brilliant!

Since, the BSA went back on their promise to provide an import/export method for 3rd party programs like the one we use for our records which we HAD and worked great with the old internet advancement system, I am just going back to paper and will just turn paper forms into the council from now on and not deal with scoutbook at all.