Leaderboard

If he's pulling in $650M in taxpayer money and another $1.2B in donations then $1M/year salary is a bargain! That's a pretty good ROI.

Ideally yes - the nominating committee would select people of proper experience to fullfill the responsibilities of the board. Taking a step back - we have to come to grips with a governing concept for the councils. Do council board function more like a non-profit board or perhaps something else? I believe that you treat them like a non-profit board. My prior recommendations are in that regard. If I sat on the national governance committee, my recommendation would be: The council board has a clear mandate to fulfill the mission of the council. That mission needs to be clea

Maybe that silence tells us where people see the issues.

Rather than hijack @Cburkhardt's thread(s) on restructuring councils I'm starting a new thread. Between those threads and my recent trip to Rwanda visiting a kid my wife and I sponsor, it just seems to me that the BSA has bigger problems than how to deal with scout shops and the annual membership fee to national. Kids in Rwanda don't need scouts so much as they need a full meal every day. The organization that connected my wife and I to the kid we sponsor are focused on these poor kids. They constantly ask: what do we need to do to help these kids? The BSA, on the other hand, is not

Agree The problem with COR's is that unless the council puts a lot of effort in educating the COs of their responsibilities, the COR's aren't typical of understanding (or caring) about the Executive Board. The SE needs to develop a relationship with the COs and teach (sell) them the vision and the value of the vision for the youth. Yep, the lack of credible suggestions is the whole of the problem both at the Council and district level. In fact it's common unit problem too. This goes back to if the Council is serious about building a performing board, they have to start at the b

We've discussed this a few times, but the good district proactively recruit volunteers with the skills for their responsibility. Finding skilled volunteers requires research, interviews and a bit of salesmanship. Most districts don't recruit well because they tend to fill a position with the first unqualified warm body that says yes. There is always plenty of qualified skilled volunteers if the recruiter goes searching for them. I recruited for qualified volunteers by asking unit leaders about volunteers in their units. I asked specific questions about their abilities, backgrounds a

BSA up and got itself pegged as faith based, so it does not have access to the federal $ that B&G clubs do.

It's not rough, it's accurate and it's part of the problem. In our unit, parents no longer pay by check but online, they use social media, text rather than email, want apps for everything, and won't pay for some of the more obvious BSA merchandising. There's no patience for the kind of happy chaos that has been scouts. Families are tightly scheduled and need to know what they are doing 6 months or at least 3 months out. We've got to have leaders that understand these challenges or we won't see membership growth.

This may be a bit rough, but... Why are our key 3 all retirement age and UK’s head honchos look to be in the prime of their careers? Just one example... Check Twitter... Our new CSE is the only one that seems to have an account and he has 11 followers and one tweet in 2013 about a car accident. Bear Grylls ... very active on Twitter with 1.4 million followers Matt Hyde... 8,000 plus followers, active on Twitter Tim Kidd... 7,000 plus followers, active Twitter is just one way I would expect BSA leaders (as individuals) to connect with parents and youth today. Ins

Budgetary belt-tightening in councils over the next couple of years should lead to reemphasis on the centrality of district operations. Here are my suggestions: · The staff of district executives should be prioritized in number and salary. Our finest credentialed executive staff members should be deployed into field service and a reasonable part of the Scout Executive’s evaluation should depend upon whether the council has a top-flight staff with the results to match. Every council-paid staff position unrelated to directly supporting units or essential to program operations shoul

Good Council Executive Boards result from finding good people and recruiting them, not changing election or voting systems. Financial restructuring will provide an opportunity to recast ineffective boards. Start now to recruit and promote outstanding candidates. We have a representative republican for of government whereby we select people to represent us and repose in them the ability to make decisions and govern. It is an imperfect system but seems to work for our society. Having regular society-wide votes on policy matters would have an occasional advantage -- but for the most part

Oh, I believe that Scouts change the world. Usually not by big dramatic actions (though we did have a bit of a heyday with that space program thing back in the 60s), but little bit by little bit over months and years and decades. If only one percent of Scouts currently in the program take the Scout Oath and Scout Law to heart, that's 20,000 American youth who will grow up opening doors for people carrying packages, and standing at attention when the Star-Spangled Banner is played at ball games, and contributing to flood relief, and doing CPR when a stranger collapses on the street, and votin

^ This ^ For all our griping about executive salaries, this is the key point. If the CSE could end the lawsuits, could turn membership around, could grow funding, clean up trouble councils, they'd be worth 1 or 2 million a year.

I'm not entirely certain that COR's would behave parochially. A well-managed board would encourage partnerships across CO's in the narrow domain of scouting ... even if they otherwise compete with one another in other spheres. A council who successfully engages COR's will likely have them encouraging other organizations to consider fielding troops. In the failed motion to get my church to sponsor a unit, it the CORs of other churches in the denomination encouraged our board to adopt the motion. Perhaps where I fell short was in not getting a COR to present his/her experience. Building use

Boys and Girls club receives significant federal funding (at one point $600M+ per year) and big grants from various corporations. They pay their CEO nearly $1M per year. https://www.forbes.com/companies/boys-girls-clubs-of-america/ They dominate inner city programs and I don’t see the BSA with the funding to compete. It’s sad as I do think the BSA has a great program. I’ve seen the Boys and Girls club camps in my area ... they are impressive and well funded when compared to BSA. I think we need new BSA national leaders who are able to mobilize youth, parents and organizatio

Districts are a reflection of the council. I've been in six councils and can't recall seeing a top-notch district in a substandard council. Either the district suffers from neglect or the council empowers a clique of like-minded district volunteers to make a hash of things with the units.

I think there are different types of people needed. Those that understand bureaucracies, those that understand scouting and those that understand the kids in their community. I wish luck to anyone looking to change their board.

I think your recognition of the low hanging fruit is spot on. Scouting doesn't have to be expensive at all. Very little in donations is needed, those would supplement but the scouts could do things to earn their own way for a campout. At its core, Scouting has little $ cost. We (BSA) has taken the easy, yet expensive approach. To buy high end tents for a troop is expensive. It is cheaper for scouts to make their own. Boys Life used to have plans for all kinds of camping gear to make. As did the Fieldbook. A new patrol comprised of scouts gathered from the "low hanging fruit" mentored by

Cub leader guides are free PDFs now, at the new Den leader experience in Scoutbook. i have yet to be unable to find anything out there with a little searching. Our Council gives out flash drives with everything available if you take any training course.

Yep, same old debate. I think we have two much bigger Uniform Method issues. The BSA has somehow managed to produce a "field" uniform that BSA itself says is for indoor and ceremonial use, not really for outdoor activities. Beyond that, BSA is producing Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA members who look like Christmas trees. Both of these developments discourage the use of the Uniform Method where it would be most useful: out in the world, while doing Scouting. If uniforms are just "for showin', not for blowin'," what good are they really?

I agree with @dkurtenbach As retired military, my observations about uniforms: - People will eagerly wear a uniform they are proud of - People will readily comply with uniform regulations that make sense and are not a bunch of "thou shalt nots" Granted, the military must wear the "uniform of the day" or suffer consequences. But looking back over three decades, there were certain unpopular uniforms that folks tried every which way not to wear if they were the UOD. The BSA uniform is an overpriced, frumpy, dumpy looking thing, designed by a committee of hand-selected g

I dont agree with you. Also, another in service training for those who think that it is their responsiblity to criticize how others wear their uniform. The red jackets are a personal item and can be decorated however the owner desires. So, like I said, my uniform, my money, my choice, so I'll put on it what I want. If you are that stuck on "proper uniforming" I would suggest that you study the rules, look at the pictures in the OFFICIAL publications including BSA catalogs and magazines, look at photos of area, regional, and national volunteers and ask yourself if it really is your business