Leaderboard

Many local councils had to sell properties and dip deeply into endowments in order to kick in their share of the settlement. AS you pointed out, the settlement will have long lasting financial consequences for the BSA and structured fee increases was and is a part of that settlement. I believe that part of that projection was predicated on membership growth which seems ridiculous on the face of it since the BSA has not had traditional membership growth since the early/mid 1970's. I believe the loss of the LDS church was factored into things but the impact of covid and the bad press from all th

Back in the day, when I served on the Pittsburgh and later the Syracuse council staffs we had the Scoutreach program. I know that in Syracuse it has been over a decade since the council provided services to low income city youth. With the rise in adolescent suicide, crime, drug use, failure to complete school and other serious issues, I have to question if one, do we have a responsibility to get scouting to these neighborhoods and two, if so, how do we manage to meet that responsibility and obligation? In Syracuse, and I imagine in many other councils they don't have enough income to even mai

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has begun working with the Boy Scouts of America in a new program to prepare youth for a preparedness role to help communities across the country be more resilient and prepared should the need arise. This has been facilitate in some BSA troops nationwide and there is a movement to bring it to the local Walton County (Georgia) area. Arlene Magoon, with the Spirit of Adventure Scout Council in Massachusetts, has worked with her local Scout leaders, the state Emergency Management Agency and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to work within the Cou

I was at a veterinary conference early in November. One of my areas of interest is disaster response. The state has a group of volunteer vets that respond to emergencies. One of the roles I thought of that would be great for Scouts is operating a temporary pet housing facility. The owners are responsible for the care and feeding of their pets. The facility operators simply establish it from a trailer provided by the state (sounds like a troop going camping) and process pets into the facility. At the end, everything get cleaned up and the trailer is returned to the owning entity.

Our Council does. It is organized on District level in similar manner as "regular" Cub Scout Packs. The difference is that it is run by a local non-profit that already does outreach / after-school / youth program work and it is slightly different in programming structure. It is run by the staff and volunteers of the outreach organization and supported by a UC like any other Pack. Membership for these Youth is sponsored between the non-profit running it and Council Scout Reach funds. This just recently started again in our District so it will be interesting to see how it will work out. It seems

Our council has a Scoutreach program, but I don't know more than that. But thank you for starting this conversation, because it's a really important one! Yes, both BSA and GSUSA have an ethical obligation to serve low-income communities, and it's not a back burner issue. Especially when proven successful, like in the Scoutreach program that you personally ran, youth programs that strengthen civil society are patriotic and helping young people live happy lives is right action. This kind of thing is, according to the BSA mission statement, core to the BSA's raîson d'être. Let's be hone

The SE (sorry he insists on being called CEO) for Atlanta Area Council makes waaay more than that. Thus no FOS for me.

I thought it would be useful to have information specific to Archery for Cub Shooting Sports events, training, etc...and Archery merit badge as well. I've created a Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1076112180079482/?ref=share If you are new to Archery, being a Range Master/Range Safety Officer (RSO), or Archery in Scouting in general, please have a look and participate in the discussions.

Any talk about the future of the BSA must begin with the financial situation it is in. Unlike most bankruptcies, BSA doesn't leave it nearly debt free and in stable financial shape. They entered bankruptcy with nearly $300M in cash and $180M endowment. The endowment is gone and cash is at $25M. They also added to their debt right before the bankruptcy ... and exited with all of that debt $222M of secured debt (I believe on their HA bases) and $364M of debt on Summit. So, $25M of cash on hand and $586M of debt. Let's say that loan is 4% and 30 years ... that is $34M a year in debt pay

All too often the COR of a unit is a ‘placeholder’ to meet the requirements of getting a charter issued. In reality the COR is a powerful position within the unit, district and council. The duties and responsibilities can be found here: https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/511-421(16)_WEB.pdf and few volunteers, even at the district and council level really understand or appreciate the power of this position. The Chartered Organization Representative is an automatic member of the district committee and also a voting member of the Council Executive Board. While it is rare, a group

I would agree. Certainly, a nice guy no doubt, but he is retired and 67. Now that would definitely qualify him to run for President of the United States, but why not someone in their prime? An energetic, new vision for the organization, someone who can get out and represent the BSA out of bankruptcy. As a businessperson, when I see a retired individual take over a company coming out of bankruptcy, I see someone who is either a caretaker for the next "real" leader OR someone who will be shepherding the company through its sale and breakup.

National Supply never orders a handful of anything from their manufacturers. If they are re-stocking olive green shorts, size Youth - Medium, they are ordering in the thousands and warehousing them (on the basis that buying in larger bulk = lower price per item to them). If they spent $3,000,000 in January on various sizes of green shorts, then they should have on their balance sheet a continuing liability each month until they indeed are able to shift those as stock to sales (corporate bookkeeping would want you to know how much that stock is a rolling asset). For Venturing, you have Ven

What is going to happen to the Pack when your Scout crosses over? *Are you going to stay in the Pack forever? What is to say that the current structure isn't going to fail regardless once you leave but maybe just in a year or two from now rather than sooner? And sometimes things have to fall to ashes so the Phoenix can rise again and maybe somebody else will actually come along and bring in a new motivated network to take over. I've seen Packs come and go. With the right group of adult volunteers where everyone is pulling in the same direction it can be great. In the end, you are a volunt

Footprints are a waste of $ IMO. Easier and cheaper to cut a piece of heavy duty plastic sheeting to size.

Youth protection: I have never ever been comfortable with a 16 year old sharing a tent with an 11 year old. When my son joined the troop 15 years ago, the SM encouraged close-age tenting. SM used subtle hints to drive this. Almost always, it just occurs naturally. No extra work. No extra planning. No big discussions. It was just common sense and subtle guidance. ... Also, it was easier as we started with new-scout patrols and the patrol tented together. Then, those patrols tended to stay together. The exceptions tended to be near same age. Patrols: My experience leans more and