MattR

Too bad there's not a committee to represent current scouts.

Ask your unit leader. They were supposed to give your son a card with his name and BSA I'd number on it.

@qwazse, I had problems editing messages on my cell phone but all is normal on my laptop. The problem seems to be that name tags ( @RememberSchiff, @desertrat77) aren't created correctly from my cell phone. If I try and add a tag in the middle of a line it doesn't get recognized and if I add one on the start of the line it gets recognized but then I can't add anything after the tag. I'm using firefox on my cell phone, for what it's worth. If other people are having problems let us know and we'll pass it on to the powers that can tinker. And now, back to the OP ....

There will always be people that hate you if you're different. Blaming the culture war on our problems won't help solve them. It's the hand we've been dealt. Making a funner (sorry, that word is most appropriate) program will help. Getting a consistent message about how that fun is used to develop our youth will help. I mean marketing and training.

Did I miss something? I thought that show ended decades ago. Either way, I always thought that character was very scoutish. We once had a guy take apart a flooded outboard motor and replaced a gasket with a coffee can lid. Making do with what you have is a great skill, and not something that any syllabus can cover.

@desertrat77, I did a google search on that image and found that the signature is John Sweet. He also wrote a "scout pioneering" book in 1974, a "patrol meeting blue prints" book in 1961 and a "more patrol activities book" in 1951. There was one copy of the blue prints book so I bought it. Just the idea of that book is intriguing. Anyway, I think John is/was a UK scouter. https://www.amazon.com/John-Sweet/e/B001KIGQI6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1

One way to make it look less like school: get rid of as much talking as possible and do the activity. Do a lot of it, as a game. Describe, discuss, explain - you've all heard my rant. I like the idea of the "teacher" planning an activity that disguises the learning. Better leadership. More fun for all. Now getting the scouts to own that.

What are the property taxes? Could that be driving up the costs? BTW, the $375k is spread over 4 camps. If that's not an issue I think it would be better to board up the buildings and invest in composting toilets. Drive the costs towards zero and encourage primitive use. Kids like dirt, trees, lakes and bugs. We had/have a girl scout camp that's up for sale that has lots of cabins and wifi and all sorts of expensive capital, and not enough scouts using it. Apparently nobody wants to buy it. Again, look at dropping the cost of the program. Those camps are important and they don't need to b

Pictures of things: in stores, a pizza shop, an ice cream store, there are some fountains and sculptures.

I think it's a good idea, but there are a lot of details missing. A 12' x 3' x 4' pile of wood is large and heavy. As in, really heavy. A large stack of logs is rather dangerous (see Texas A&M bonfire). I've had piles a few feet high start rolling on me. The proposal says wooden poles will be used rather than a frame. What does that mean? Will they be pounded into the ground? The proposal says the wooden poles are 4-6" in diameter. These aren't poles so much as fence posts, so pounding won't work. Post hole diggers? Manual or powered? In the photo it looks like there is other stuff in

As soon as the weather gets nice, start doing meetings outdoors. We've done search and rescue mock ups. I'd think in town map and compass activities would be fun. We did a treasure hunt in our town once. It took a lot to setup but it was fun. Do it at a park, with a simple cookout, with scouts wearing class B's and a necker, at about the same time the little soccer kids are doing their thing. Stick with the buddy system. This would be more fun than a typical meeting and it's the best type of advertising.

Yes, now is not the time to merge. Bigger council: bigger target. I'm also not sure bigger is better. Amuse me for a moment: The approach of this thread, let's decide which councils to merge, appears to be a bit top down. There doesn't seem to be any input from the units and volunteers that put on the program and not even the councils. If there's to be a bottom up, service view of leadership then here's a good place to start. To begin, evaluate each council. This is not JTE as that's crap. Pick an outside entity with no skin in the game an

One very bad example: my council. Through the wisdom of one staff they had one council property put into a conservancy (they can't add or increase any structures) and were paid around $750k to go into a trust. The council spent all that money. Recently, they did create a $6M endowment. They have already started spending it. To add insult to injury our CE got his job (some 10 years ago) because he was going to clean up the financial aspects of the council. Incompetent or corrupt? I understand the sentiment from people that say councils should have a lot less to do. This is why I think

I was going to write something about council camps and management and all that good stuff, but I stopped. There really is only one problem that needs to be solved at the council level. The person running it (and this includes the board as well) needs a very unique set of skills. For one, they need good, real experience running non-profits. Balancing budgets, hiring good people, replacing bad people, working with volunteers and poorly paid employees, drumming up donations, solving problems and, most importantly, making a positive impact in the area of the non profit. This does not come fro

Abracadabra, and all your posts just moved. Sorry about the confusion. Sure, if it could work without paid help I'd be up for it. I was thinking of our DE's and all but one do not have the same experience as most of the district staff. On the other hand, there should probably be someone that can get things started or can solve bigger issues. It wouldn't need to be a district person, but that topic would have to go back to the other thread. So don't even mention it here. (It took a while to figure out how to move everything. )

I moved a bunch of entries to

When we stopped pushing useful skills? BTW, I've fought gear creep, with some success. I did get our chuck boxes reduced to a tote. I tried to get the First Class cooking requirement (make a list of gear needed) part of what we had to do, to no avail.

Concerning DE's and districts altogether how about look at the needs of the unit and let that drive how it's delivered. Different units have different needs. A few are really strong and don't need any support. They can do their own training and run their own program. Most are muddling along and some are new (we hope!). They need help maturing. The goal should be to grow the unit's maturity, just like working with a PL. What does that look like? The current model is training, turn-key program (just write a check and show up to a camporee, summer camp, or a high adventure base), and wise gu

Another idea: What would it look like if the DE's could do what they thought was right, what they hired in to do, rather than chase numbers? I've met really great people that were destroyed by the get-money-or-die directives.

NotNot sure this was discussed and it covers a couple of these threads, but there's an important question that needs addressing. If the BSA membership drops to between .5M and1M, what will the program and structure look like? I'm not saying it will go that way but it could get ugly. And even if it doesn't get that bad it would certainly help make the BSA stronger if it could deliver a good program with fewer resources and fewer people. Random thought spewage: Fewer DE's covering the same territory. Fewer units will be near each other. All those units in rural areas will be typical. Neighb

Just to add another way of what @Eagledad and @yknot seem to be saying, scout led doesn't mean adult ignored. Ask questions. Keep them out of ruts. Keep them about the law and oath. One size of adult participation does not fit all, it really depends on the maturity of the scouts.

True, but when the BSA tried to cover things up, can we blame that on society wide ills? If, instead, the BSA had brought it out and explained what it was doing to solve the problem they would have a lot more credibility now. The mindset should have always been that a proven abuse results in a ton of very visible repair going on: Helping the abused youth, prosecuting the abuser, and understanding how it happened to improve the unit, the council, and the BSA. Anyone hiding an event should have harsh consequences as well. I just wish there were some concrete numbers put on when these abuses

An idea for a great service project: help a girls den, or two, run fun meetings. Make them all den chiefs of a AOL den and invite them to scout events. Point is create a relationship between the den and the troop. Whenever we do that we get lots of recruits. When we stop, things dry up. If it's appearance that counts then there's no relationship.

Is there a precedent? Is there another financial web that is this tightly dependent on each node and yet claim independence? Mary Kay? Franchises? If a couple of franchises of a restaurant sell burgers with mouse feet in them and the main company covers it up what happens? Especially where, if a franchise looses it's licence, all the assets go to the parent company.

It sounds like you're going with B) Be Prepared for when the phoenix flies. I hope you're right. And you're not the first person that has told me this.