Leaderboard

Yes it's complex, and many faceted. And I admit, you need experienced volunteers to help units with program. But what happens when you have volunteers with 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60+ years of Scouter experience who raise concerns and questions, and are ignored, browbeaten, or worse, expelled from the movement? I've seen all three happen, including the expulsion of a longtime volunteer who discovered some financial irregularities. When volunteers do not feel appreciated, they leave. When volunteers are overruled on things, they leave. When volunteers feel like they have been lied to, th

I think this is getting closer to the crux of the problem. There is training and there is coaching mentoring and encouragement. The troops use both. In fact, it's heavily weighted towards the latter. The councils barely use training. For other than safety related training, the model is one and done. So, how to run a scout troop? It's based on the lowest common denominator and one and done. Outdoor skills? One and done. Everyone here says one needs to seek further on one's own to improve. This doesn't match the problem of having fewer parents with outdoor skills. They don't know what they don't

Again - it's a complex issue. We are doing our volunteers a disservice by not being frank with them. To have a quality program, they have to build a quality program. You can't take a couple of BSA courses and have enough knowledge to run a unit. You have to be humble enough to recognize that you have to continue to try, to work hard, to improve the unit. The Scoutmaster of our troop has been at is for 25 years. Yet, he still looks for new ideas and new things to do. He still listens to new voices and grows the program. No amount of training is every going to install the wil

You think people who come here represent the norm? Think again. Adults are the critical, diminishing resource for effective program., There were a few adult-shortage such issues in the late 1960s, but the membership bloodbath of the "Improved Scouting Program" brought the shortage of adults to the fore. BSA has done nothing to correct this problem. Indeed, as a District Chairman, I got a letter of reprimand for directly recruiting adults, actually only Eagle Scouts, as volunteers. That was, and apparently still is, contrary to policy. Something about safety. I was also told not

The Professionals share a substantial amount of blame for why the BSA as a whole is where it is currently. Respectfully, I have to disagree that volunteers do not have a part of it. Is the official BSA training inadequate? Yes. But I'd wager at least 50% of troops are failing at the basics (Having an outing at least once a month, attending summer camp, youth planning activities and leading the Troop.) At some point, that's on volunteers, many of who should know better. We all know volunteers in other units in our councils who despite taking all the required training and then some, and st

It's only silly if you haven't bothered to educate yourself about what companies like Facebook and Google are actually doing and if you do not care at all about your own personal privacy. Speak for yourself. There are many of us who do *NOT* use Facebook precisely because we do not agree with their socially irresponsible terms and conditions. Instead, we advocate for government to step up and enact RESPONSIBLE privacy laws and date security laws. In the EU, baby steps in the right direction have taken place, and companies and software professionals talk about how they will respect ne

I like this idea. IMO, it should not require a SM give up more free time . Just as public school teachers allocate school days to professional training maybe so should scouters with their troop meetings and activities... No troop meeting this week, I'm at training. Service project instead of campout this month as I will be patrol camping with other SM's (patrol camping? ).

I'm a railroader, and this breaks my heart. Please just pay attention, don't try to beat the train. Look both ways, whether there are lights, gates, wooden crossbucks, whatever. Not only does this affect the family, but the crew on the train as well. We are helpless when this happens, we can't stop in time. The guilt you live with is overwheming.

National financial problems - You are correct, these are due to the sexual abuse cases of the 70's, 80's, etc. The SBR was a bet that hasn't worked out too well - so yes, throw that in there too. Though volunteers did the abusing, that's not really the issue. That "the BSA" allowed it to happen for so long and go undealt with is the issue. These problems are not created by volunteers you are correct. Yes. National is here to build functioning councils. Councils are here to build functioning districts. Districts are here to support and enable strong unit programs. Part of en

Sorry, but National cannot blame volunteers for this and the current financial mess the organization is in, they can blame certain volunteers with a predilection and drive to molest the youth entrusted to them and they can blame their predecessors for not being more proactive in eliminating those individuals from the roles of volunteers. They can blame those who were spending the money at the National level for properties like SBR. They can take a long hard look in the salaries at the top level of national and the council execs (who should NOT be earning more that schools superintendents in

The formula for volunteer engagement has not changed. When followed, it is as powerful as ever, as we can see in strong units with lots of active volunteers. Adults spend their time and energy and resources on things that they value. What do they value? Activities that are fun for their kids, especially if the activities have some greater value. Activities that are fun for the particular adult, especially if the activities have some greater value that is understandable to whoever that adult reports to (spouse, significant other, boss, children). Activities that are not rea

The cause of what is going on in the BSA is complex. But make no mistake, much of this is because of volunteer and program issues. My district has 15 packs. The largest 5 account for 70% of all the Cub Scouts in the District. The smallest 5 account for 10%. The largest pack is bigger than the smallest 5 put together. Each of these small packs recruits 2 or 3 kids a year. Do they do school talks - no. Do they put of flyers - no. Do they recruit at their CO - no. Do they spread the word through social media - no. All of those things our local council trains on, encourages, and pr

So you are saying these are not issues? How do expect new adults, especially ones with NO (emphasis) Boy Scout/Scouts BSA experience to provide a productive program for the youth. Training should be the answer, but it is a joke as others have pointed out. I have seen "trained" adults nearly destroy troops. Remember this is a brand new troop, only in existence since February 2019. It is one of the hundreds that have arisen this past year. The only experienced Scouter is the SM, everyone else is new to Scouts BSA. But every adult is "trained." Apparently there was was some "disc

I guess the Sixteen Nineteen Council wasn't on the ballot.

"These are really volunteer and program issues." So let's blame the volunteers, who can only "vote with their feet" and their pocketbooks. That should raise morale - and contributions. The beatings will continue ...... Why do we need BSA if the people we collectively pay many $millions have no responsibility for results? We had ninety-nine troops in the Cleveland, Ohio, area before BSA even arrived in 1912. One hundred and five years later, with a much larger population, I doubt we have that many - actually meeting - in the same area today. We have sold off three camps and part

It's easy to point at these cases and blame the lack of youth experience or training as the problem. These are really volunteer leadership and program issues. A Scoutmaster should be cultivating the adults in the program so that they build up to cold weather camping. With your typical Scout in the program for 4-5 years, there should be a bunch of experienced adults who have cold weather camped before - even if they were never Scouts as a youth. When a new parent joins, the Scoutmaster ought to say - "why don't you come on this camping trip in April". Then again in September, the

"Useless" training should be replaced by useful training. The BSA position-specific syllabus since 2000 does not allow coverage of the topics in sufficient depth so it is often boring for those with Scouting experience and shallow for those with no Scouting experience. Excellent staff can ameliorate the time deficiency only slightly with "home-work" materials and high energy. Wood Badge does not "explain," or "demonstrate" the Patrol Method. Many participants see it as modeling the adult-run troop method. After all, the "adults" (staff) run almost everything and almost all training

That's because most of the units have Scouters who have had experience as youth and know how the program is to run, or came into established units, and were mentored by the experienced Scouters, and then took over as the experienced folks stepped down. Problem is we are now getting a lot of adults with little to no experience as youth, forming new units. We had a new troop locally whose new adults complained so much about camping in the cold, that the experienced SM was forced to cancel a trip. And these are "trained" new adults I might add.

How many mortgages on Philmont and how much equity does the BSA have left in Philmont? What are the "agreements" the BSA made with the Phillips family for ownership transfer? So far I have found these two sources OA history website (text in black) and http://www.sccovington.com/philmont/trek_info/philmont_overview.htm (in blue) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waite_Phillips In 1937 (1938?) Phillips made one of the most magnanimous gestures in philanthropy – the family donated 35,857 acres of their UU Ranch – much of what Philmonters call “the South Country” to the Boy

Ah a Pittsburgher! The capital of Scotland will be shocked to learn that it has lost its "h," having had it for centuries. Not to mention Edinburgh, Ohio, Greenburgh, New York, Hamptonburgh, New York, Plattsburgh, New York, Newburgh, New York, and Edinburgh, Indiana, - at least some of which have residents who know how to properly pronounce "burgh" [no "g" sound]. 😃 But here's hope: Prince Valiant appears weekly in more than 300 American newspapers, according to its distributor, King Features. https://www.comicskingdom.com/prince-valiant/archive

I really hate to be a cynic, but I don't know if the origin of the debt matters. They're losing money and in the red, and they used Philmont to get more money. If they're lucky membership will stop declining, but for now it won't go up. Eventually they will run out of money, file for bankruptcy, and then it gets interesting. I'm more curious about what happens after they file for bankruptcy. In particular, would a judge say "you guys are clueless, it's time for you to get better leadership?" The BSA keeps saying the problems are all external; membership, volunteers, society, whatever

I wish I had your optimism. Unfortunately I have seen pros take over and ignore the boots on the ground. Not only at the local level, but national as well. One example is the "instapalms" that 94% were either against (18%) or strongly against (76%). And to this day, they still have not released the results of the last membership poll they took. I have seen a few pros that have a passion for the movement. Sadly they tend to leave quickly and the ones that remain and move up tend to view it as a job. And they willdo anything to keep their positions.

The council was named after Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson in the late 1920s. The new name, Virginia Headwaters Council, represents the fact that the James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac Rivers all begin in the area covered by the council. Pete Fenlon, president of the executive council, said the connection to nature is fundamental to the scouting organization. https://www.whsv.com/content/news/Local-scouting-council-changes-name-from-Stonewall-Jackson-Area-Council-to-Virginia-Headwaters-Council-565449041.html