Leaderboard

IMHO Scouting's challenges have been that the program and emphasis is pulled in many directions by many different constituencies. Starting really in the 70's the trail has been varied: we are going to be urban we are going to be less outdoors we are going to be more outdoors we are going to do sports we are going to be involved in inner-city and have council run units we are going to be a leadership class for youth we are going to be STEM we are going to be less advancement focused we are going to be more advancement focused we are g

I thought everyone did the retired adventures anyways? We typically finish the required ones fairly quickly and we let them pick whichever ones that want, retired or not. If there is no loop, we make/give them a creative handmade craft in it's place.

Roger Krone is showing far more engagement in a few months than Mosby did in years. No complaints so far! That said, BSA is in a crisis. Hopefully he takes aggressive action to course correct.

When you try to be all things to all people, you wind up being nothing to everybody, instead.

Once the proposal is approved, he can go full bore on planning, coordinating, scheduling, preliminary site work, etc. He just cannot do any fundraising until he get that separate form back.

Numbers from a Commissioner End of December 2023 was a little over 1M. Nationally we dropped from 923,399 in January 2023 to 893,117 in January 2024, a -3.28 % loss.

Transparency and communication. Report to the Nation. National Annual Meeting becomes the National Open Meeting. My $0.02,

The consequences of a massive shrinking BSA. In addition, the practice of changing volunteers who staff is not a great practice. One of the ASMs in my troop had a lead role in past Jambos. He spent over $5000 out of own pocket to volunteer (flights to Dallas, food, etc.) along with hundreds of hours just in prep. He couldn't justify keeping up that level of commitment. That said, several of my Eagle scouts said Jambo (not last year's) was by far the best experience you can get in scouting. These are youth that also went to Philmont and. BWCA. Why? They both explained that anyone c

We track Scout accounts using Scoutbook. Scoutbook produces a report to tell you how much each Scout has or owes, and tracks your unit cash balance. We use a separate spreadsheet to track all unit income and expenditures for the year. But we do not do it very well 😉 I'd share that with you but it would requires redacting a lot of data and names associated with training expenditures, Scouts joining (dues), camperships, etc

Go for it. None of that stuff gets translated to Scouts, BSA, or further than Cub Scouts. If you need filler after they complete their appropriate year rank badge, put in whatever you like, as long as it is in line with the Guide to Safe Scouting. Make sure to recognize their achievements publicly. If you can find and buy old bling to give them, even better. Just know that you may not be able to record these in Scoutbook... no biggie

Do it. Make it fun. The kids aren't going to know if they are official or not. It is really about the experience.

July 22-31, 2026

While it may not be obvious, it certainly is on the radar. Of course, we already have coed in cubbing, many units mixing boys and girls in the various Den levels due to needing leaders and keeping it working, and there have been few issues from what I have seen or read. Granted, some do have separate girl Dens, but usually mixed then for advancement. Of course, we also know that Exploring, Ventures, and Sea Scouts are all coed. So the truth seems obvious to me, and they just are making it more difficult to keep membership in small units. So, on paper girl and boy troops with the sam

02/23/24 Harvard Business Review: Presidents Found Their Second Acts In the section William Howard Taft Finally Gets His Dream Job are these seemingly misplaced paragraphs perhaps for a second article CEOs Found Their Second Acts? We all have dream jobs. Roger Krone, who became the CEO of The Boy Scouts of America, may offer a corporate analog for what it can mean to finally get there after decades of work and an unusual path. A former Eagle Scout, Krone had been chairman and CEO of Leidos, a $14 billion, 47,000 employee, Fortune 250 government technology company, from 2014 to 2023.

If you have records for all this, we can submit an appeal to National and get this Master Sergeant his Eagle Award. Mostly, we would need the application. If he did, in fact, have his requirements complete before 18, National will award the Eagle. They are not usually martinets about the date of a form... You willing??

As a retired county employee, union rep, home owner who needs a new roof and present Scout Leader, I recognize and share your pain. A Scout is trustworthy. But to mis-quote a past president, A Scout should verify and remind.... alot. ALWAYS make copies of reports. Include many folks in the negotiations. Make three contacts, then move on to the COMPLAINT stage. Cultivate the good contractors. Pass on recommendations. Remember that everyone needs to "make a living", that many workers get the job done quicker (usually) rather than one person doing everything. That said, yeah, i

So as long as I'm in "rant" mode.... I'm SO angry right now. Guide to Advancement says you can't add requirements beyond what National states. GTA also is clear that scouts are not REQUIRED to use a coach, and it certainly doesn't say anything about a scout not being able to submit his own Eagle Project Workbook. I started to fight this before, but my son asked me to just 'go along with it' and not make waves, so I did. But telling a scout that they are self-sufficient, capable young men and women and that Scouts is scout-led, then telling them that an adult has to submit the workbook on

Just pointing out that Old Gray Eagle (or OGE as we knew him) is no longer with us. He died unexpectedly and prematurely. From his untreated OSA? We'll never know.