fred8033

(pre-covid) I already donate a dozen plus hours a week. Every time I sign up for an "away from home" activity, it affects my marriage and family. So when I can, I prioritize wife and kids and look for places I can save time. A formal sit-down dinner is the exact place I can save time. I've been involved in the district for a really long time. I avoid the formal sit down dinners. I avoid Woodbadge Beadings (10 to 30 min). Times have changed. This is not the Ward and June Cleaver era. People are stressed and won't sit thru pomp. For awhile, we ran it as an outdoor buffet picnic where unit and district leaders cooked campfire dishes to share. It made the format fun and social; and I can get things done such as needed conversations. Sadly, we went back to a formal sit-down event. People don't want to waste time. I second the suggestion ... Be kind, courteous and thrifty.. Bring the awards to the leader where they are already spending their scouting time. Unit meetings. Maybe unit adult leader meetings. District camporees.

This is similar to the girl scout model too. .... from my understanding ... the girl scout councils have access to their bank accounts. But, at least the units still have their own bank account access. They don't have to submit an expense report or spending request to the council. QUESTION - Does anyone have published reference materials about the new charter model and the councils holding the money ? if councils start managing unit funds, many things in the troop will become a "cash model". Makes the treasurer's life easier, but volunteers can get burned being shorted or having extra work to chase dollars. Our troop has shrunk so much that we are often running on a cash basis. Here's an envelope for this campout with notes on the outside and money on the inside. Many troops have youth collect food money from each other. It's a mixed blessing. It gives scouts responsibility, but scouts don't feel the impact. Their parents do. Usually, the parents are paying for the food. If the scout gets shorted, they don't really care as it's the parent that really got shorted. No skin off the scout's back. Our troop always had the scout submit the food receipt and the scout got reimbursed ... as long as it's within reasonable closeness to the budget.

I'd expect more of these. I'm actually looking to see if we can switch our troop charter to the new model. I think it would be in the best interest of the church. The church provides a space and storage but has no involvement in running the program or overseeing the leaders. It's really no difference to the church. They will continue to support by opening their doors, providing space and storage. It's really a clarification and movement toward how scouting really exists.

@Melga ... Kudos to you ! First big positive ... I absolutely love hearing a volunteer produced the document. I wish more BSA documents were produced by volunteer oversight committees. I realize you did not have significant input, but it's still a big plus. Thanks for the detailed explanation. Working on more platforms is a big improvement as many, many scouts have trouble with the workbook.

From the article .... BSA info to GSA ... sounds like public-vs-proprietary info tap dancing. BSA was pretty much saying the same thing to all the public at that time. And it was generally accurate. We're not going co-ed. We're single gender programs. But single at den level and single at troop level. Just a troop can be single gender of either gender type. ... lots of tap dancing ... Internally ... Sounds like a training issue. First, you don't do things like that. Second, you definitely don't put things in writing like that. Situations that are borderline and subject to interpretation can be pushed over the edge with sloppy internal communication. Effectively, these internal emails become a mea-culpa. Sounds like a training issue.

Might be time to change the name of the award. Connotations have changed. The award is still very honored, but it's followed with inappropriate jokes.

Sorry if I'm preachy at times. It's my personality quirk.

Every scout has always had the option to earn Eagle in less than two years. I agree that it does not produce the best result. Scouting is a journey of experiences; not an award. .... I'd ask a question though. You do not encourage, fine. I fully agree. ... But do you discourage scouts earning in less than two years? I see far too many scouters actually trying to slow down scouts. I just don't think that's an example we should be setting. I pray that I've never "slowed down" a scout. I say that because of a memory when I was new parent in Boy Scouts. The troop had a scout that was all excitement and energy. He'd earn awards as fast as he could. He loved completing requirements and doing new things. It wasn't his parents. It was him. A few ASMs told him multiple times to relax; slow down; you've got time. Sadly, he left and went to do other things. He was at least first class and way, way more merit badges than needed for Eagle. Camped monthly with us for at least two years. The kid basically had completed all requirements for Eagle except a project. ... I saw that holding him back as a major cause of him choosing to spend his time elsewhere. I'll always be sad he did not finish. Each scout has his own journey. Our job is to let each scout have his own journey, experiences ... and time-frame. As earning Eagle is highly valued, opening the door to new Eagle candidates was gauranteed to be a race. A race to be first. A race against time. ... "Inaugural class" is the best way to recognize that it's not a race and it's about the journey. BSA is not recognizing the fastest. Rather, BSA is recognizing the huge transition welcoming girls to scouting. This has needed to happen for a long time. We should celebrate. I hope we tell our male scouts that too.

I started thinking if I could find an authoritative source. My effort was pitiful, but interesting. I pulled up an old copy of the movie "Follow Me Boys". The scouts called their scoutmaster Lem. The adults were formal with each other (last name basis) until they knew each other as friends, close to an inversion of today's practices.

So so true.

It's interesting. Does that mean some BSA personnel might be for actual liquidation.

I agree manners calls for referring to people you don't know by title. Beyond that it's a style and choice. Perhaps this is why troops can be so different. As "colonel" was brought up, perhaps we can think of scouts on a continuum. On one end, is the military --> Stand up straight and salute the those in charge. On the other end is Big Brothers Big Sisters of America --> a friendly, first-name basis mentoring relationship. Both styles are absolutely valid. Our SM for 15 years was always <first name>. He was a good friend to the scouts; a friendly ear; and a mentor. He did not really "lead" the scouts and definitely did not put himself in-charge of the scouts. It's what I wanted for my sons. I consciously avoided the local militant troop. With that said, I'd put our troop up against the other troop any day of the year. Camping. Adventure. Responsibility. Independence. Please do not take this as disrespect. I honor and respect those who choose the military. As a parent, the hardest years for me when my enlisted son was on the other side of the world. Once, we did not see him for over two years. Often, we went weeks / months without communication. He was mostly safe, but it was the hardest years.

So if churches are at risk because they "chartered" a troop with incidents of abuse, does that mean that US government should be a co-defendant? Congress chartered BSA. Every year the President of the United States accepts a face-to-face report out on scouting. For 100 years, BSA's national jamboree happened mostly on a military base. US Military accepts Eagle scout as evidence for immediate military promotion. For most of a 100 years, local governments, schools, police, etc actively involved themselves in scouting. Perhaps the 100B settlement should just be tacked onto the national debt. It's pennies compared to the national spending for the last year. Seriously, the congressional charter is honorific without any substance. Or that's my view.

It's why cases like this are supposed to have time boundaries. The vast majority of these cases lack people who can defend themselves. Deceased. 40 years ago. Society has DRASTICALLY changed. Abuse is always wrong ... but that does not make this court case right.

The same can be said of scout leaders. The vast majority are ethical, high standards individuals. Now, BSA is in financial bankruptcy pursued by ethically bankrupt lawyers. ... my sad attempt at humor in this ugly situation ...

I'm strongly a first name person, scout or adult. It's about reducing barriers to communication. I want the scouts relaxed and willing to discuss challenges. I don't view this as teaching courtesy or manners. I see that taught in a 1000% small lessons that we should be having throughout scouting. Set expectations to be consistent. If you expect formal from the scouts, then also be formal to the scout. Anything else sounds like a power trip.

I'm absolutely supporting YPT, registered MBCs, but I hope never to have to see that. It's hard enough to keep unit records straight. I can easily see having to record a six month old MB, but the person is not registered anymore as a MBC. It would create real nightmares. BSA needs to rethink / redesign the role and process of MBs.

Yeah. That should have changed a long time ago. How tools work is effectively another training mechanism. If ScoutBook allowed units to register their own MBCs, that exactly the same as BSA saying units can manager their own MBCs. That was never intended.

QUESTION ... From what I understand, units could not assign the role of MBC. The change is that units won't be able to change the MBs counciled by an existing MBC. Is this right? I'm surprised this functionality was there before. MBC has always been a district / council setup role. Many of the comments above are 100% correct. YP and YPT is always our first concern. MB role in scouting needs to be re-thought. MBC role / selection needs to be re-thought. I'm hoping this does not happen, but if BSA really wanted to lock it down ... then require ScoutBook data entry to have a valid, currently registered MBC recorded as part of the MB tracking / award. Right now, our troop can award a MB without recording the MBC who approved it. I'm cringing even saying this as I don't want to deal with that. Nope. Don't want this to happen.

919 awarded in 2019. I'm betting less than 200 sold nation wide. Maybe 400 as I'm betting counselors buy them more than scouts.

You win. I surrender.

Sadly, I had to search hard to find the exact model I used as a kid.

Wow. I feel like I've had high school flashbacks ... Just my preference ... PDF can be organized into a nice on-line library. Ascii and Web pages make for poor organization. Just my preference. Only My opinions ... ... PDFs ... Professional? Yes. Can very much be so. Can easily look like a professionally published document. ... Hyperlinks are ASCII ... Yes, but not clickable and not easy to use in an ASCII doc. ... Eagle workbook. Uniquely difficult in BSA because of the extra complexity of an editable PDF. Basic PDFs are well integrated into most all phones, computers, web browsers now.

I prefer PDF documents as it effectively looks and feels like a book. Professional. Illustrations. Cover page. Index. Table of contents. Cross references. Searchable. Most importantly, printable into a real document.

That's our troop. A few scouts did high adventure. The whole troop did an extra summer week (in addition to summer camp) in one of the national forests / state parks in the 5 or 6 state area. Great experiences. And, it was nice to see our scouts in public with their uniforms.