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First, thread title edited. second, my late Dad was a CPA. When he discovered businesses were borrowing for operating funds instead of capital growth, he’d get out of any positions he held in them forthwith. I pray the National Council does not need these funds for operating revenues. If they do, BSA is on some form of borrowed time.

I'd love to see them bring in someone from the outside for this. The organization is at a critical juncture. Rather than tapping someone in the system, it would be better to have the absolute best person in the role.

Why does this disease that everything has to be bigger, better, blingy-er always infect organizations? Instead of Bechtel, BSA could have done so much more good if it had developed a program to help retain Council level camps and properties on a regional basis. Property management expertise, help in setting up regional joint purchasing agreements to maximize cost efficiencies, marketing help, seed money to help transition some holdings into public ownership rather than being lost to sale and development. We are not scouts if we can't get kids outside. We are losing too many council camp proper

...and for recharter, National wants to do credit background checks of us?

For the life of me, where does a families permissive or non-permissive sexual ethic come into BSA? I do not equate being an inclusive organization as being a reflection of any sexual ethic.

I think that you have swallowed the bait. We Southerners have always used a slow speech pattern to deceive carpetbaggers into underestimating us while we separated them from their money and women...

From Ministrywatch.com: "The Boy Scouts Mortgage their 'Crown Jewel'" "According to documents obtained by MinistryWatch.com the Boy Scouts of America has mortgaged Philmont Scout Ranch, one of the BSA’s largest and most valuable properties. "The Boy Scouts filed the mortgage in Colfax County, New Mexico, where Philmont is located, on March 21, 2019. The filing was recorded on April 3, 2019. The document places a mortgage on the entire Philmont property – which covers more than 140,000 acres, or about 220 square miles – in northeastern New Mexico. The mortgage also includes “a

Sadly they (BSA National) does not seem to look for outside talent. You have to be part of the club, raised in the club, dedicated to the club, in order to be anointed to run the club. Likely some of the issues with finance and direction, currently impacting the organization, may have been lessened if leaders with some outside experience and different professional path had been in charge.

Shore Patrol LPO - Subic

I don't think one could disagree with this statement: “The reality there is we didn’t really leave them; they kind of left us,” said M. Russell Ballard, acting president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. “The direction they were going was not consistent to what we feel our youth need to have ... to survive in the world that lies ahead for them.” One could certainly argue whether they agree with stated positions of the Mormon Church, but they are what they are. Fact is the BSA has made changes in membership requirements. The BSA felt they needed to make changes to be more

Agreed. It often felt like a square peg for a round hole. Never really fully matching. It was more LDS used BSA as a youth program as the program was 70% matching. It seems more a left-over relationship from the 1920s-1960s. But as society evolved, the LDS faith development program needed something else. I don't view it as LDS strong arming or BSA leaving LDS. Rather, society changed. LDS could have chosen to use BSA within the context of LDS but instead decided it was finally time to create their own branded youth faith development program. It may have a huge financial impa

I can accept that the BSA and the LDS have drifted apart. The little bits of their new program I've understood seem like a bunch of priorities that just won't fit with the BSA program.

So at a quick glance of OP document, this is rob Philmont to pay Bechtel?

I'll have to disagree....When it comes to the social agenda, the Mormon Church has never respected separation of church and state. This course of action that the Mormon hierarchy decided to pursue was purely punitive, their original intent was to force BSA to back down from social changes that they strongly disagreed with. Recall Prop 8, California's Equal Rights amendment where the Mormon church illegally used the pulpit and deceptively named grassroots groups to enlist supporters against the amendment. It should be obvious that the Mormon church placed the BSA in a no win situation... to e

Popular Mechanics magazine ran an interesting article about Scouting a few months back. Some of their 10 facts about Scouting's history are well known to scouts and scouters, but a few are rather obscure, and may be a bit surprising. For example, did you know that there were 5 U.S. presidents who were former Boy Scouts, only 1 of whom was an Eagle Scout...and there was 1 president who was a former Scoutmaster. Want to know who those Scouting presidents were? You can read the article.... https://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/g26145549/boy-scout-facts/

This is another area where Corporate Scouting (at both the National and Council levels) adversely affects Unit Scouting. Rather than asking what units actually need to operate a great program 52 weeks a year, the folks running the show ask what they can do that will impress their "stakeholders." Something they can highlight when giving tours of their facilities or making fundraising pitches. Something they can attach a donor name to. But over and over again, we find that "If we build it, they (Scouts) will come" is something that only happens in movies. And we're left with big debt and/or

Hopefully Jim Turley will realize the fallacy of continuing to look internally.. He's got a pretty signficant resume and hopefully will look at this with that lens. He mush have hired enough executives in his career to know how.

Remember - whatever the question is, the answer is in fact "sell more popcorn". Sadly my unit is not part of the solution as we don't hock the corn

...and if our units are struggling financially, National wants us to "sell more popcorn."

Yeah, the Indonesians seem to have wholeheartedly embraced the scouting program. BTW: I see that for 2012, Indonesia claimed 21.6 million members and in that same year, BSA's membership was 2.9 million. In 2012, the total population of Indonesia was 248.9 million while the US population was 314 million. Proportionally, the Gerakan Pramuka is kicking BSA's *ss when it comes to recruiting and retention.

Oh boy. Never been to Subic myself... but I have heard many stories from shipmates. I am glad to see you survived. Mike

I disagree about the outcome. It is very good for LDS. They are no longer throwing $$ toward an organization for which a large portion of their male youth weren't actively involved, and the adult leadership demands were overtaxing. The potential for the LDS to attract non-LDS families is as high as it's ever been. If TL/USA is any indication, they are poised to vacuum up a lot of youth in families with a restrictive sexual ethic. On the other hand, those tens of thousands who might want their boys to be brought up with a mind toward a more permissive sexual ethic have not flocked to BSA.

@RememberSchiff, my impression is "in part." I think National is cash-poor in just about every category....

I'm assuming some new council person made the wrong decision when looking at the form. I'd encourage you to wear then anyways. If you really want to get official, have a meeting with the council to discuss and request an explanation. Don't let the council just push you around.

@Onslow, my guess is you're getting a response you didn't expect. Hang in there, you're at least trying. It sounds like this culture you're seeing is new to you. Don't be so quick to judge. Keep listening and watching. There is goodness everywhere. If there's anyone that needs scouts it's these kids in the town you're describing. Nobody else is trying. So it would be great if you would. To those that see this as the usual tribalism in our country at the moment, all I can say is never waste a problem.

At cub scout camp this year they had the First Aid station right next to the fire making station. I happened to know that they had an open packet of burn gel sitting on the table because someone earlier had needed it. They showed it to the kids as they were talking about burn first aid. After my daughter finished up her first aid session, we went over to try our hand at making a fire on a sand table. We were only allowed one match, and mine broke, and since it's been a long time since I've used a regular match I have forgotten how easy it is to burn one's self on it and without thinking

Sounds like that Council Executive has given up. Of course traditional Scouting still works -- at the unit level, if you have leaders who know what they are doing and an active program, especially an active outdoor program. Traditional Scouting isn't working nearly as well at organizational levels above the unit because the layers of bureaucracy above the unit level aren't adding much value to unit Scouting and instead are a drag on the movement.

I've always thought that underdeveloped rural areas face many of the same challenges as impoverished inner city areas. Crime, drugs, poor schools, broken families and few economic opportunities. As others have already said, there are people and leaders of character in every community that are fighting the good fight. You need to find those people and partner with them. That starts with not going about it in a judgmental manner. These people may have different lifestyles and challenges in their lives than you do, but that's not always a reflection on their character and capability.

Shared with my jamboree troop.

Sounds like fun! Since it's a competition, I assume that fabulous prizes will be awarded...

I've heard the same thing about only wearing uniform when fundraising with popcorn. Like you, we ignored it.

My SM and ASM were no nonsense WW2 veterans. While not an official BSA policy, in my troop, if a scout could not achieve achieve the little asked in Tenderfoot requirements quickly, why are you there? This was common with other troops at the time, particularly those with waiting lists. This may seem unkind today, but my SM was not there to babysit, he was there to develop first class scouts. You didn't waste his time . I took a long time to earn First Class too. Somehow, I eventually passed Morse Code after failing, trying Semaphore and failing, and trying Morse code again a