Leaderboard

To my mind the most alarming thing is that this SM seems to lack a basic understanding of how a troop ( a collection of patrols) should be run. Except for obvious safety reasons and the most egregious and uncontested violations of the scout law, a SM does not remove patrol leaders. The patrol elected him, the patrol can elect someone else if they so desire it. In my troop it required a 2/3 majority because we realized that not every decision a PL makes is going to be a popular one. Even if it is the right one. In 20 years I think only two PLs were removed in such a fashion.

Popping in to try and learn a little bit on scouting topics that I just took for granted in the past.

From Scouts Australia It is with deep sadness that we inform our Scouting family of the passing of Lord Michael Baden-Powell, a dear friend to all in our movement. The grandson of the Founder of Scouting, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, 1st Baron of Gilwell, Michael succeeded as the 4th Baron Baden-Powell of Gilwell on December 28, 2019, after the death of his brother Robert. Michael’s profound commitment to Scouting was evident in his unwavering dedication to grassroots-level involvement. He wholeheartedly believed that attending Scouting events and engaging directly with Scout

I am reading other threads and feel that I need to come here and scream this.... <sorry if it's not obvious> My post is not a bash the girls point of view. I welcome the girls and have (2) of my own. I think accepting girls and allowing them to achieve equal merit and recognition for their journeys in life is a great thing. While I speak to girl and boy troops within this thread it ONLY applies to how the two units I am exposed to are run and simply the murky water that the management I am exposed to is creating. This has nothing to do with BSA, Girls in the BSA, Girls in scouting o

A Pillar of Scouting whom I met once. Simply no equal to my knowledge in the Scouting Movement. He was the exemplary example of the "Charity of the Scouting Soul." He has no equal other than BP himself.

The non-profit is the charter organization (if there is a non-profit). Troops don't incorporate; charter orgs do. So, "if they are sister troops", then they are probably under the same non-profit. It's okay for a non-profit to have a fundraiser and then share the results with their specific missions / sub-groups as they see fit. Scouting dollars almost always stay in scouting (99.99% of the time); but that is not even a hard rule. The non-profit "should" have an annual report, but that's for the bigger non-profit organization (church, etc). Scouting is an arms-length program that

You know, I had to go back and check several times to verify which it was, because it sounds an awful lot like a pack. Initially, I was reluctantly impressed that such small children managed to vandalize a restroom physically 🙃

Kid fundraising is indeed out of control and I have also become increasingly sensitive to the financial and time challenges faced by some families. There is a lot of free stuff out there and sometimes it helps to get off the unit/district/roundtable/council/BSA bandwagon/herd and scout around for random stuff you can find on your own. I don't know what level you are, cubs or troop, but there is a 4th grade free national parks pass that can be used to get 4th graders and several family members into most national properties, not just parks, for free. Many YMCA's offer free year long trial member

I loathe fundraising. It wouldn't be too terrible if it were just for scouting, but with active kids it's non-stop, year-round. Scouts twice a year, marching band basket raffle and Gertrude Hawk, lacrosse cornhole tournament and bagels, swimming (both winter high school and summer club swim) swim-a-long pledges and winter sports night donations... It's too much. I refuse to continue asking our neighbors and friends to give money, even if they're getting something out of it. At our last committee meeting we had a loooong discussion of how much we would ask for our dues, how many adult

As an update to this, Lifesaving Badge was successfully achieved at summer camp. Taking in everyone’s advice we sent dad’s (larger) pants and belt. Thank you to everyone and for the great stories that came along with the advice!

The pandemic has had a noticeable effect on child development and what might have been reasonable expectations before are not at present for some of these kids. There has been a lot of discussion about this in the educational community because teachers are continuing to deal with it in the classroom and that would be a good place to look. In general, these kids need more social intervention, not less, so suspension might not be productive. Expecting peers to be able to manage this along old youth led models also may not be productive because they are experiencng some of the same deficits. From

@Cburkhardt, I do not know where you live and what socio-economic class your Scouts are in, but mine are in an extremely low economic class. If we were to charge full upfront costs and conduct no fundraising, we would not have a troop. 2/3 of the troop are on some type of financial aid for national and council fees as it is. EDITED I am hearing from the packs that the lack of prorating fees is hurting recruiting. It is too expensive to join. At least with the prorated fees, they could see if the child liked the program ( Scouting is not for everyone), and units had time to help out Scouts