John-in-KC

My experiences are rather similar to BrotherhoodWWW's. Sad, but true. Parents in general (vice unit serving Scouters) don't show at most Committee meetings nor most Troop meetings. Most CC's are reluctant to call an all-hands parents meeting simply for an FOS pitch. One time, I was told by a CC I was going to have 40 boys' parents at a parents meeting. He delivered on 5. In a perfect world, I'd love to have FOS off the table at Courts of Honor.

Bob, I'm calling you on the Community strips. From my own collection, the San Fernando Valley Council had the following strips available: Reseda Woodland Hills Canoga Park Van Nuys Chatsworth San Fernando Burbank As of 1960, 12 years before merger, those were, except Burbank and San Fernando, all community suburbs within the City of Los Angeles. I got my uniforms at JC Penney's, Reseda So it wasn't just the community where the council operated ...(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

HFE, There are plenty of questions I don't have answers to for this Troop. How many kids do they have, what kind of program do they present, what opportunities are available, what's the equipment replacement cycle, and on and on... Even so, right now this troop has 30K in the bank and 7K annual budget. They could do absolutely nothing in terms of getting money for the next four years. They'd still have 2-3 months operating funds in the bank (factoring in inflation). In my personal life, I keep a full years worth of "Personal Time Off" as a contingency reserve against family emergency of my own, of EagleSons, or of my parents. A years' reserve is usually a fairly conservative estimate. These folks have a 400% reserve. IMO, they need to do some useful things for their members... as Beavah suggested, perhaps some capital procurement for the program, or perhaps some added opportunities for those enrolled over time. My thoughts only.

GKlose... Welcome as well, same question. I will tell you this: My ticket items became clearer as I went through the course. I will also say: If you've had leadership psych and soc along the way, you'll find Wood Badges' academic content a useful return visit. If not, you'll be introduced to some useful concepts. More importantly... WB will give you friends and resources to work with all your days.

Do Cub Scout Fast Start. Take any training you are lacking. Take BALOO. Start looking at how you can recruit for this Pack come the fall. Visit with the parents. Find out whether English or Spanish should be the common language for Committee, Pack, and Den meetings. Develop a uniform closet. Hit the thrift shops. Talk with your Chartered Partner. See if you can find some folk who are willing to help while you set stability for the long haul. Remember, yours is not the direct contact position. Your responsibility is to develop a great support structure, and to help find Scouters.

BALONEY. If you put up an emergency help wanted ad, you need to put all the contact info in the ad. You also need to put the enticements which will cause someone to decide "This might be worth it." Why should someone decide to re-arrange their summer plans to support your facility at the 11th hour? Instead, my perception, based on your ad, is an unorganized operation that can't even timely develop its staff. If I were a SM looking at year after next options, whatever the Council website said, I might not be presenting this camp to my PLC for consideration. Feedback is a gift. Use it.

In another thread, GW said: I wonder how gas prices are going to impact FOS donatation from those in the lower end of the earning spectrum. I help the Finance Operating folks with FOS pitches to units, and with FOS call banks. While our District met its overall goal (Community + Family), that was due to the Community side compensating for shortfalls in the family side. Our District Family goal was $100K. Last time I checked, we were at $96.5K. Our junior DE, a first year man, had brought in more $$$ than any of his predecssors, but was still behind the power curve on target. Sigh. Are there other reports from the fields?

This is Scouting, not the US Armed Forces. A Scout is a member of a Patrol. The Patrol elects its leader. This is representative democracy in action. The Patrol Leaders come together and form the Patrol Leaders Council. The PLC is both the legislative body and the Executive Departments of a Troop. The Scouts of a Troop, in body politic, elect the Senior Patrol Leader. He is the chair of the PLC, and the overall leader of elected and warranted youth holding PORs. He, along with the PLC (and for that matter all the Scouts of a Troop) is mentored by the Scoutmaster. The Scoutmaster is the principal program officer of a Troop. He is selected by the Chartered Organization Representative. Ideally, the COR follows procedures Scouting establishes to choose adult Scouters for direct contact adult positions. Parallel to the Scoutmaster is the Committee Chair. He/she owns all matters support within the troop. The CC is also selected by the COR. The check/balances between program and support are: Scoutmaster reports to the Committee on happenings of the program side. Committee holds Boards of Review with youth, in part to evaluate the effectiveness of the delivered program. I understand you wanted a KISS answer, but there are more relationships than a simple line of authority would show. BTW a JASM is an older youth, approaching adulthood, who can be entrusted with some adult tasks of program delivery. YIS (This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

Basementdweller, A Pack may do an overnight family campout a couple times a year. A Boy Scout Troop camps every month, and the destination can be 1-2 driving hours away from the meeting site. At $4 a gallon, that gets to be a pretty big nibble on the parents who regularly drive the youth. A couple years ago, most of us took the monthly campouts out of hide, now, it's a bit bigger challenge.

I'm not sure your vision and your goals match up. A great place for a young man to impact on program is to be an area head or assistant head at your Scout Camp, putting on superior program. Then, you can be in position to be a Camp Program Director ... where choosing people becomes part of your job. If you want to affect change, that's a great place to start. It's also a fantastic place to earn a reputation as a man with energy and maturity. Then, if you also know your numbers (are you a finance major in college?), you have a shot at achieving your goal on ever-broader scales. You might even find a career in Scouting is right for you...

Gern, I don't know about your Council, But in mine I see members of the Executive Board, at Scout Camp, working directly with youth. I see the senior members (District Commish, Assistant Council Commish) of our Commissioner Service at Cub Day Camp and all our Council Camp programs. I'm not talking one-day visits, I'm talking about guys wearing camper or staff shirts, there for the full session. Maybe my Council is outside the norm, but we have folk doing their Scouting jobs.

I've seen three main points made thus far, and I agree with all of them: 1) Get on board with your PTO as your Chartered Partner. Back to school nights, flag ceremonies at monthly meetings, reports back on what what the young men are learning and doing ... and helping the PTO get more members from the parent base of your Troop. All help. 2) STOP THE PRACTICE of giving Scouts the remaining balance when they leave the Troop. Stop it today. The Troop can give an Eagle Scout a substantial gift when they Eagle... but make it an item, not cash, and make it the same thing each time. Protect your CC, protect your Treasurer, protect the PTO President. Stop the practice. 3) Get the account down. 3X over annual budget is just not right. Free recharter/Boy's Life. Free Scout Camp. Ask the PLC to consider a major, Troop-paid, high adventure. Draw the account down.

Beavah said what I've been struggling to say, far more eloquently. I refer folks to his post. That's my take.

Hey, folks, Think and look at your own Councils... The Executive Board has operating committees... Advancement, Activities, Camping, Facilities, Finance... It's the support side of Scouting, the business side. It takes REAL MONEY to operate a Council each year. That clerk helping the registrar? She can go get a Secretary III or IV position somewhere else. We have to pay her a competitive wage. What about the Reservation Ranger? I know a guy who is an AIA architect. He works with the National Engineering Design Bureau on projects. I know another guy who is a fire captain in his city fire department (volunteer). The Scout Executive? Go look at the area peer organizations. See what their COOs are being paid. He's hopefully just competitive. My immediate boss is on the board for the neighboring Council. He's been hit up for real money more than once ... another friend is on our exec board. Yes, he's "comfortable." Yes, he gets hit up for real money every year or so. If you look at major philanthropies like the Lied Foundation or the Mabee Foundation, they have rules on how their target organizations receive funds... and those rules can include a minimum percentage from the recipient BOD. The best place for svendzoid to provide the youth input to his Council's Executive Board is to become Chief of his OA Lodge. Many, not all, many... councils include that young man ex officio.

pixiewife, May I presume the youth are cooking for themselves at Scout Camp (Hooray! if so)? If you google on Scouting patrol box contents, you'll get quite a few answers. Here's one which looks fairly complete: http://www.troop184.org.uk/patrol_box.htm (It's a Transatlantic Council unit in Britain). Here are two other sources: http://www.three-peaks.net/cook_kit.htm http://www.troop166.com/patrol_box_contents.htm Of the two, I like the first more than the second. Hope this gives you good info to discuss with your youth Quartermaster before you shop the thrift stores and surplus outlets.

As a conservative... What a crock of excrement. It stinks. The biggest single reason we Republicans/conservatives are going to be taken to the cleaners in this election cycle is we lost our moral anchors (rock solid integrity) and our political ethical anchors (spend for very good reasons).

No, but Obama chose not to leave because Wright and his successor are across the line from faithfulness to the Word. The way his resignation letter reads, he resigned to cut his losses.

Remember, there's a reason for 18 being the floor. It's the most common (but not only) threshold between youth membership in the program and adult membership supporting the program. Some (don't know how many) Councils make exception for OA Lodge chief as needed. As Lisa said, which age range are you wanting to discuss? Young or old?

Ed, Are those reasons within the bounds set by NT? From my understanding, not necessarily.

Our Council has it pretty good indeed. There are a lot of high dollar folk on the Board. That I've seen more than a few of them in unit-serving positions is an additional delight. You'd be surprised how many BOD folk are good and caring Scouters.

GW, I was taught there are limited reasons to change churches: - Relocation. Even Paul did that - Error in presentation of the Word. "I don't like Mrs. Smith, I'm leaving" is not one of those reasons. "I can't stand the heat of worshipping here, I'm leaving" is another "not one of those reasons."

Where is Will Rogers when we really need him? He's morphed into Uncle Jay (Uncle Jay Explains the News). Lisa, I have to agree. Scoundrels and scallywags abound. I'm not sure of a straight talking President since Harry Truman. I just find it interesting that Obama cannot hang his hat on a valid Scriptural reason to transfer churches. It's almost as though he's putting Trinity UCC in Matthew 18 church discipline... Sigh. BTW, to Gern: If Dr Condoleeza Rice or Secretary/General Colin Powell were on top of either partys' ticket, I'd be voting for them without a seconds hesitation. Rice/Powell, or Powell/Rice, is still my dream combination. It won't happen (another sigh).(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

So today was set up day for District Day Camp for the Cubbies. PD sees my smiling face and throws me a roll of yellow caution tape. I start looking around the facility (we rent a county fairgrounds), and oh, boy... look at all the untagged power, pole barns full of historic tractors, and that big semitrailer that's open... all kinds of fun misadventures for 8-10 year olds. Needless to say, our DE professional adviser get a shopping list of stuff he'll need to get at home depot or lowe's. It's all fun though, because we have a better idea where the eye candy is, and where we need to make sure no Cub ever wanders. Anyone else got tales of annual camp set-up ??

The big thing about converting parents into volunteer Scouters is to do it one small task at a time, until you think they're ready. Ask them to help drive the Den to an activity. Ask them to reserve the campsite or park shelter for an event. Ask them to help set up an awning. Thank them when they're done with it, and keep asking them, and thanking them. Eventually you ask "We need someone who can do ___________________ for the Pack. Would you like to join Scouting as an adult leader and help us do ______________________. We'll provide the training. When asked several times about smaller things, they often say yes to the big thing HAve fun

Hey, Trev, didn't you know there's a National Commissioner's Program Experiment in long distance meetings going on ? It's in the secret documents that only one of us here has access to (and it ain't me). Helps you fill Lisa's needs from Deep in the Heart of Texas...