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Two unimportant anecdotes (but entertaining and IMPORTANT, scoutily): 1. I bought a canoe once, tied it onto my van. The Dad (seller) nodded to his son to look under the van to check out my knots-son was an Eagle. (Me-Eagle) Dad did not think I saw Dad's direction to son, or understand its meaning. (Was a mere look-Dad to son-eyes moved toward my knot work-subtle) Son looked, son subtly nodded to Dad: "OK." Take aways: Dad was concerned that I would adequately secure the canoe. Son was trusted by Dad to understand the meaning of a few eye movements, AND trusting that son KNEW HIS K

One of my Eagles told me how in Iraq, the plastic tensioners on the tents kept breaking. So he used a Tautline Hitch on his ten to fix the problem. His platoon's Gunnery Sgt. sees him doing this, and has him teach everyone in the platoon hot to do this so that when they break, they know what to do.

Agreed 100%. But, Survivors still need to be thinking in year(s) unfortunately. For some that means their Estates will receive awards instead of them. That's tragedy heaped upon tragedy and yet another reason why Bankruptcy court is the WORST place for so many Survivors. There will be reason for some optimism at some point but history will not judge this whole episode as a good one for Survivors.

Mostly: Fixed costs. They still have the infrastructure and staffing for a much larger membership. I assume donations are also dropping. Something has to give and they don't have the ability or desire to align their income with their expenses.

One of my fears is that CAC's $20/month fee was the foot in the door. Many people who are younger seem to gravitate to the subscription model. This car will only cost you $400/month. This home will only cost you $2500/month. If you don't look at the total cost of something, the monthly fees don't seem that bad (until you add them all up). BSA only costs $20/month in CAC ... $20/month sounds perfectly reasonable until you multiple that by 12 and realize a few years ago the equivalent was only $30/year. Once you establish $20/month then a change to $22/month much easier than tr

When my son crossed over with his AOL den, the Den Leader sent an example of a plaque that the parents could consider getting (on their own), but the Pack itself did not pay for this. The Den Leader was nice enough to provide out of personalized arrows for each scout (he purchased arrows and then personalized with colored stripes that lined up with the badges they completed throughout their cub scouting career). With the info, I purchased an arrow holder plaque on etsy on my own. Given the extra cost for such a plaque and not budgeting ahead of time, I would strongly disagree with the paren

I have been researching Texas 4-H for my kid lately. $30 for youth and $10 for adult volunteers. I have learned a thing or two about running a youth organization locally. I'm just sayin'....

Actually, tell the Scout to download the pdf and make the corrections himself... I have just finished round 5 of working with an Eagle candidate to get his paperwork correct. About round 2, his parent implied I could just make the corrections myself. Yes, I could, but, no, I would not... Scout will be bringing his form to the meeting tonight to get Scoutmaster and Committee Chair signatures, then he will deliver it himself to Scout office tomorrow! @qwazse is right on. You may help and guide them, but do not do it for them. BTW, a handwritten application is fin

Oh, for the days when completing an Eagle application was none of an adult’s business. … Just a scout, his typewriter, and correction tape! Thank you for trying to help your scout, but it sounds like you should just save the .pdf for him to complete the rest. Meanwhile, report your problem on the Scoutbook forums: https://discussions.scouting.org/

We conducted a hastily planned recruiting event at a local elementary school last week. I talked to several parents and one of the recurring themes was cost. It got me thinking about our programs. Cub Scouts is more expensive than Scouts BSA when it comes to the basics. A fully uniformed Cub Scout has to buy a new hat, neckerchief, slide, and book every year. A Boy Scout can use the same 4 items for their entire career. Why do we have this? It's been 40 years, but I don't recall changing hats, neckerchiefs, or slides until Webelos. I know we tell parents that they really just need a sh

BSA fees effective August 2022 and they will be going up $75 for Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturing and Sea Scouts participants ($3 increase) $45 for Exploring participants (no change in cost) $30 for council-paid memberships (no change in cost) $45 for all adult volunteers (no change in cost, includes cost of background check) $100 for a unit charter/affiliation fee ($25 increase) CUB SCOUT UNIFORM Hat 22.99 Shirt

And thereby the Council was killed. I quit giving to Friends of Scouting when my council executive was paid more than 4 times my income. Just a simple lawyer, I am, huge liability if I get it wrong. BSA Council executives are grossly overpaid. My local council executive gets paid nearly what my child gets paid as an attending radiologist. (MD). My child gets it wrong, patient dies. Council Executive gets it wrong-well staff gets it wrong-an extra three minute wait for a porta-potty. My current Council Executive manages a staff of 9± (down from 27 staff) and is paid about $300,000

I do think we are going to see more and more councils that were not charging a separate liability insurance fee to units will start to. Spirit of Adventure Council charges $100/year on top of Nationals chartering fee. Discount on "monthly specials" only at Crossroads Outfitters? OK. Not on everything, just what would probably otherwise have been a sale price on a monthly item. What I would be wary of is the discount on activities/rentals. The councils here that put in the annual fee for "Adventure Card" just jacked prices up that same year for events/rentals, so the net benefit was r

WOW! That's insane! That's more than a four-star general or admiral in the military makes. There is no way in hell I am donating money to "Friends of Scouting" again if they're paying those executives that much money. If you assume they're accurate in claiming an average of 50 hours a week, that's 2,500 hours a year and works out to $130 an hour.

More context of that fee would be nice. Especially helpful to understand how it bypasses the current edict on annual activity fees that Councils can impose in lieu of annual FoS demands. Trend-wise here in New England that councils moved to that model years ago and asses each youth an annual activity fee- varies a bit on what that fee is, and what it gets the youth/unit. Mayflower Council charges $36, which gets the unit free tent camping at council camps and adults get no-cost training (BALOO and IOLS). Spirit of Adventure Council charges $48, Narragansett Council charge $54 for Cubs/Scouts B

It is already hard for me to recruit in September when it is ~$50 for 3 months and then $175 (national fee and unit dues) by 12/1. This giant fee increase assumes nothing for the unit. Crazy.

Welp .... CAC has now paused the new fee schedule. Based on feedback from parents & volunteers, Crossroads of America council has decided to pause the new fee structure. My daughter's annual Girl Scout fee is $25. As mentioned, 4H and other similar organizations have pretty low annual fees. BSA thinking $300+ is reasonable is completely wrong. Members within CAC are still upset. The entire council volunteer corp & paid leadership approved the fee. Hopefully a warning to other councils think about a massive fee increase.

@Jameson76, would you be able to do the job? And, if yes (or no), how much would you like to be paid (or think they should be)? (I'm just curious, and not trying to be a joker...) I know I could. And I'd do it for about $150K, in our local area. However, I use a lower number because I also receive a pension from another type of service organization 😜 At that combined income, our family would be in the top 10% of household incomes in the US. (Where those salaries already place our SE's.)

This seems, without looking at the details, to be the issue. Staff, staff pay, facilities, and services sized for 2x the current org would drive 2x the old costs.

Your registrar should have caught that! We had a situation like that when I first came to this Troop. Luckily, based on previous experience with the same issue (caught by the registrar the previous council), I found it and was able to help correct. Here's one way a situation like that happens (it's what happened here...): - Scout joined Troop in June, just as school was getting out. Troop leader had the parent-signed application, but did not submit it to council (sat on it.) Scout went on outings and to Summer Camp with the Troop (where he earned merit badges). Troop leader did not s

I love the original "National Treasure" movie and have gotten a kick out of the new Disney+ series, "National Treasure: Edge of History." No spoilers, but in the season finale two of the main characters are trying to navigate a swamp. One says something along the lines of "I wish I had paid more attention in Boy Scouts." He jokes that his dad made him sign up so he could become an adventurer but he never made it past Scout. When he asks the second character how far he made it, the second replies "Eagle." The Eagle Scout uses some basic navigation skills (direction of the sunset) t

Camping, shooting, first aid... time in the field was my favorite part of basic training 🤠

Art imitating life. From marines at boot camp “remembering all those orienteering lessons that I had tried to forget” during their night in the crucible to veterans who told me about how calm and fearless Eagle Scouts were when their platoon had to bivouac … I’ve heard this story multiple times in multiple ways from multiple people.

The output is a fillable PDF, so your scout can manually complete the missing data. But as @qwazse said, report the issue at the linked discssuion form which provides support for scoutbook.

I have seen it, and generally it was a screw up on the Council getting dates wrong. Probably doesn't happen very often now with everything recorded electronically, but 20 years ago we asked Council for a copy of all the scout's records and found they got some of the records wrong on 30% of our scouts. Most of the mistakes were not a big deal, but once in a while the got the rank dates wrong. Barry

Their top paid employees total comp: SE = $326K Deputy SE = $331K Dir. Major Gifts = $191K Dir. Field Ser = $182K

@lithigin, It may be considered adding to requirements if you attempt to discuss what was said in the family meeting. I would be extremely ticked off if a counselor attempted to discuss what went on at the meetings with my sons. Don't even get me started at how angry I would be if other Scouts were around for the conversation. Let me summarize what happened a similar situation I encountered regarding Requirement 6.B.2. IT CAUSED AN ARGUMENT AMONGST THOSE INVOVLED (major emphasis). The discussion led to remembering events better forgotten. Folks were accused of making up stuf

I'm a huge advocate of using the paper handbook. Scouts should always have their paper handbook; campouts, meetings, etc. The online scout book is a nice view, but I am always concerned that is the entry being made by the scout or an overly zealous parent. I'm concerned about expecting to use expensive tech on camp outs. I'm concerned about the handbook narratives being there when needed. Also, scouts should focus on being active. I really have a problem expecting scouts to double enter the data from the paper handbook into the online scout book.

A link to the PDF that was used to present this new "Adventure Fee" to CAC volunteers at last week's district roundtables is here:https://crossroadsbsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/PP.pdf?vgo_ee=PEyTUlc0mr504drzrLyWRWVLY1pGRWb2%2B0FTX4hhTec%3D And as a long time volunteer in the Crossroads of America Council at both the Pack and Troop level I do not approve of this fee.