dsteele

I keep forgetting to tell you guys a story of a good turn done for a Boy Scout Council. One of the astronauts who died in the Challenger tragedy was from our council headquarters city. On February 1, every flag in town went to half-staff. Including the one in front of our council service center. Let me say that lowering our flag to half-staff is no easy task. The office isn't far from a high crime area and the tie off of the flag pole is about 10 feet in the air. It used to be lower, but we had so many flags stolen that they raised it up to make it more difficult. After a we

First of all, welcome to the forums! It sounds like you've read enough to have some sort of respect for the opinions posted here and are now taking the plunge and joining us around the electronic campfire. Please feel free to post whenever it tickles your fancy. The more the merrier as far as I'm concerned. I have to admit that my first reaction to your question of counting council/district merit badge pow wows as activities was defensive. I've been wearing a council hat for 6 years now and it took me a second to think it through. My first reaction was of course you should count them

Joni: Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know we were talking about a recruiting issue here. Hopefully my suggestions will help. Nothing says that your camp has to be staffed by BSA folks . . . at least not that I'm aware of. Check local policies. It does say, in the Cub Scout Day Camp National Standards, that every member of the staff must be registered by the BSA. There is a registration status for camp staff that you could register non-scouters under without having to tie them to a unit or year-round responsibilities. Are there ladies auxilary groups? I think I just

I could be shot for heresy, but that's never stopped me before. It's also why segments of my family were asked to leave the Emerald Isle . . . I agree that training has the flexibility, in the hands of capable trainers, to be adapted to the audience. I've done it myself. To expound on the above example, we once had a group of about 6 very experiennced Scouters who wanted to take Commissioner Basic, but were either unable or unwilling to give up an entire Saturday. The staff and I discussed it and we condensed the syllabus to a little over 3 hours. We didn't leave anything out, b

Old timer answer -- Get your hands on an old (at least '70's) Boy Scout Fieldbook. There was a lot of that type of stuff in there. There was a revival of it in the late 80's/ early 90's that was pretty good, too. That's where I learned how to do the chicken in the backpack, which turned out surprisingly well. DS

I forgot one thing. I don't know if the original source is Chief Scout Executive Roy Williams, but I heard him say it and I'll attribute it to him. It rang in my ears and continues to resonate for me . . . "Adversity doesn't build character. It reveals it." Roy Williams, Chief Scout Executive to an audience of Scout Executive and other top professionals -- Top Hands, August 2001. I liked the quote. DS(This message has been edited by dsteele)

Getting back to the topic of the BSA losing United Way funding regarding it's standards of membership . . . We won the Dale case in the U.S. Supreme Court. I can't remember which very high level BSA official said it to me, but I knew it to be the truth when he said it. This was while the case was being heard. He said, "Either way, we lose." Well, he was right and he wasn't right. I think many councils have taken financial "hits" because of it. I also think there has been an equal and opposite financial "gain" from donors who admire us for sticking with our values. I think m

Hello, folks. I've been monitoring this thread with interest and remained have remained silent. However, my wife is off visiting her cousin overnight and I'm bored. So what the heck? I'll kick in some thoughts on why you need live trainers. The discussions that occupy most of this thread have lots of good opinions on all sides. I'll leave the debates to the good folks who do the NLE and other training. I recently covered a roundtable for a sick district executive. The topic was youth protection training. I'll probably be reprimanded by some on these forums for not diving i

Yes, there was a tragedy last summer at a camp in Wisconsin. I had only left that council about 30 days previously and knew the kid, the camp director, the council program director and the Scout Executive as well as the officers. They did everything right and still there was a tragedy. A perfectly healthy tree got knocked in half by a brutal wind and fell on a tent. One Scout was killed during his first week of Boy Scout Camp ever. His tent-mate survived. These types of tragedies are very, very rare in the Boy Scouts of America. Don't worry about it too much. As to your con

I'm not a tax attorney, nor do I play one on television. I am a professional scouter, so I may be able to provide some insight. The couple can donate directly to the troop. Taking the tax deduction, however, is where the problem lies. The troop, unless it has filed and been approved as a 501 © (3) charitable organization is not a tax-deduction-maker for individuals recognized by the IRS. There's a similar thread asking how much money a troop could make on a fund-raiser and the answer is that there isn't a limit. This has to do with the non-profit status of the troop. I like the

Quite often I'm able to refer to a document or memo that I have received from National by nature of my position to back up what I'm saying. Now I'm going to use the fact that I haven't received anything from National regarding HIPPA to back me up. I believe that if HIPPA (which I'd never heard of until I read this thread) applied to my council, that I would have received multiple memos explaining how to comply. I have received serveral memos, for example, over criminal background checks and related areas such as what to do with an individual who refuses to give SSN (reject them

KG: I'm not a parent, so it's hard for me to imagine what it must be like to let your son go off to a camp (as a staffer! Whoever thought that day would arrive so quickly?) several hours away for 9 weeks. My guess is that it's probably harder on you than it will be on him. I started out by saying that I've never been a parent. That's true. However, I once was a first-time staff member. Then a second-seventh time staff member, then an Assistant Camp Director for 2 seasons, then a Program Director at camp -- so I know a little something about what's going through your son's head.

The Boy Scouts of America is strong. We will survive. One of the reasons we're pushing so heavily on endowment gifts is the article posted above. Gifts given to endowment can not be spent. They are invested in funds and the interest can be used to pay for Scouting operations as needed on a day-to-day basis. There are tax advantages to donors as well as the satisfaction of knowing that the $1,000 you gave for the James E. West Fellowship will always be there, generating a few dollars for Scouting forever every day and every year. If we had enough in endowment, it wouldn't matt

Here's an official non-answer. I say non-answer, because the Boy Scouts of America, in the case of the Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs sets minimum joining requirements. There is no age maximum for Cub Scouts and for mentally or physically challenged Boy Scouts. That choice is left up to the parents with the acceptance of the unit the boy joins. If the foster parents feel the boy would better benefit from becomming a Webelos, then Webelos it is. If the leader will accept him. He meets the age requirement for a Boy Scout Troop and it sure sounds like it shouldn't be too tough to find

David -- Mr. SPL -- you have received some excellent advice here. Congratulations for taking your troop down this important path. There is one tool that can help the adult carry out the plan you and the PLC will create. It's called the Ideal Year of Scouting and is available through www.trails_end.com Your unit can creat it's own private page and it will allow someone to input the troop's entire schedule for the year as well as costs, etc. That's the main benefit I see. It's heavily geared toward the popcorn sale (big surprise, huh?) and will tell the unit how much popcorn each

I hope they keep the Minuteman name as well. It is a noble name. As far as movies about the revolution, there aren't as many as I would like to see, but I can think of two that do a very good job of explaining the circumstances that led up to it. Those two are Johnny Tremain and 1776. The newly digitalized 1776 just came out recently on DVD and is well worth the 20 bucks or so. I think I've got that thing memorized . . . DS

eisely, Thanks for clearing that up. I was wondering what you disagreed with in my long post. Not that there wasn't anything to disagree with. Anyone can disagree with me anytime they would like. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it's wrong . . . hee-hee-hee. I enjoyed the Jefferson Davis Council idea. However, didn't he die in exile? I don't remember. He doesn't stand out in my mind as having the same nobility as General Lee. DS

Interesting question. It applies differently based on the status of the organization. There are rules for 501 © (3) organizations -- like Scout councils than there are for units. Check with your local council fund-raising professional or Scout Executive for clarification and application of BSA rules specific to that fund-raiser. I've served one pack who bought a dump truck (with pack funds) based on their profits from a well-run popcorn sale and specifically for moving their gear around for outings as well as picking up their popcorn. Unbelievable, but not against the rules. I've

Excellent point. Most kids that go home mid-week from summer camp never quite muster the courage to face their buddies at the next regular troop meeting. I have been known to point that out to a Scout as one of my last aces. It usually works, and then I take the kid fishing. I rember my first year at Scout camp. They used to have parent's night on Wednesday night (the camp is close to town) and then the parents would leave. I think the logic was that if the kids could see their parents mid-week, they would have the strength to last until Saturday. For me it had the opposite effect.

Interesting topic. There's a reason professional scouters refer to council headquarters city. Actually several reasons. One reason is it tells us which region it's in. Another is that the name of the council can change and usually changes more often than a council moving it's headquarters. I don't know the statistics, but it makes sense to me. Just remember that a name is only a name. I was kind of torn when my local commmunity opened debate to changing the name of Garfield Elementary (named for President Garfield) to the name of a local civil rights activist. The civil rights acti

The thought of treating phone cards as electronics is interesting. I'd be tempted to steer you in that direction, but let's spin it a bit. A lot of troops keep "banks" for their Scouts at camp. This would be an adult in charge of the cash they bring. The Scouts can make withdrawls and deposits. Why not include phone cards, with the insistance that they not be included in the money amount, but treated like protected property. The kids should understand that losing a $5.00 phone card is like losing a $5.00 bill. This would allow the adult to question the "withdrawl" of the card when th

I wouldn't call it term limits. In my mind (translate -- opinion) a district or council registration, like most unit registrations, is for a period of one year. There is no term limit per se, but there is an evaluation at the end of the year. In fact, if one were to dig into the annual meeting and nominating committee processes for district and council positions, I think he/she would find that all volunteer positions in the BSA are for one year. There is no set limit for the number of consecutive years. Some councils and districts take the issue more seriously than others, as do some

Acco40 -- ya got that right. The kids aren't the problem, it's usually the parents. The story comes to mind . . . Okay, I'll admit that I was one of the first Reagan Scholars at Eureka College. If you'd like to check that out, go to www.ec.edu and look up the Reagan Scholarship program. It was based on leadership and I got it because of my youth involvement in Scouting. My point is that I've developed the story telling style of my buddy Ronald Reagan. I can't help it, but that's why you have a page down button. I was assistant camp director and one of the parents wanted to g

I have to admit that we're off topic here, but I've never found a cook book called "Fantastic British cuisine." So, okay, I'll buy that the stuff isn't motor oil. Wheel oil is probably more accurate. However, fellas, the one that took the cake for me was the perfectly American dish they tried to serve me in college -- peanut butter soup. I passed on that one. And this is coming from a guy that had no trouble eating guinea pigs in Peru . . . At least they tasted like chicken. Grin. DS

Joni: Let me begin by saying that I don't believe you've bitten off more than you can chew. I think you'll be just fine. It's been a long time since I attended or taught at national camp school for cub scouting, but I believe that the short duration of your program means that you don't have to meet all the standards set by national for a Cub Scout Day Camp. Your Scout Executive and/or camping committee made that determination. They may call it Day Camp, but I believe the standard is set for a duration of time and that your's falls under the category of a council activity. Tha